Mysterious & Misplaced Logic of a Maniac Gone Awry

ALL NEW AND IMPROVED GABE PRODUCT!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:27:00 +0000

It's new! It's improved! It's still Mysterious and Misplaced as hell!

There's a new and improved MysteriousandMisplaced.com. No more blogspot, and no more restrictions.

This website was built by Phil almost completely from scratch and all with notepad, so I'll let him explain everything.

Hello all, this is Phil. Let me explain the new cool things you'll find.

In the blog section you'll find:

a random post button
a new post calendar
blog links for posts when they turn one year old
new rss
recent comments down at the bottom
most popular posts at the bottom too
improved pop-up comments
and a really bitchin' header with slide-down tabs for easy access to the other sections

The other new things you find is an super cool intro, image gallery, panorama gallery, and video gallery. All very new and all very cool.

If you interested in the technicalities, the blog is using Wordpress 2.2.2 with a custom made theme by me. The gallery is using Plogger with a custom made theme by me, the panoramas is using ptviewer for panoramas, and the video section is using phpyoutube.

You'll find this site is full of new features and therefore you need a lotta things to view it all properly. To get the full experience, make sure you have Flash 8 or higher installed, Javascript enabled, and are using Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or higher. Click the pictures below if you need one of those three things.

I hope you enjoy the new site and new stories to come.

My Chinese Headache Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:09:00 +0000

Since it seems like it is going to take longer than I anticipated, I am going to go ahead and post what I have written thus far. I am going to try to finish the second part of this story in the next few days or so. Alright, well, enjoy!

A month or so ago, I was sitting in front of the office computer passing the time away waiting for Phil to be done teaching when Belinda, my local boss, approached me. I knew what she was going to ask long before she opened her mouth. I knew because it was about that time when questions needed to be answered. It was time to see who was going to stay on board for next semester and who was going to be jumping ship and swimming home. I already had my answer, even though it had been difficult one to make. I was just waiting for her to ask.

"Gabe, will you be staying for next semester?" Belinda asked.

"Yes, I will, but Phil won't."

"Oh, why?

"Cause he needs to find a computer job either here in China or back home in the States. That is what he studied in school."

"How long will you be staying?"

"Just one more semester. Maybe more. I don't know. I'll make that decision later."

"Just one?"

"Just one."

And that was that. She told me that she would get the contract from Beijing soon and off she walked on her two inch heals to her corner office.

Several weeks passed before I got the contract. I wasn't surprised. Things in China rarely happen quickly when you want them to. It is quiet the opposite when the Chinese want something done - at least from my experiences. I told Belinda that I would have to read over it and make sure that it was OK. There was no way I was going to sign it immediately. I've been in China too long to know better.

The contract that she gave me was more or less an identical copy of the first one I had been given for the spring semester. Basically, it was very vague and didn't protect me in the slightest. This didn't come as a big surprise or anything. They give all of the teachers the same standard governmental contract. Well, since I had worked under it in the previous semester, I knew of the many flaws and problems it could and would give me. This is why Phil decided to write an amendment to my contract, so that when he left me to go back to America, I wouldn't be left defenseless.

The amendment ended up being two and half pages long when Phil was done writing it, the same length as the original contract. I want to clarify that the amendment wasn't asking for anything special. Its soul purpose was to explain in fine detail what my duties as a teacher were, what was to be expected of me, and the school. I didn't want there to be anyway that anyone could interpret the contract in any other way than the way it should. We sat down and talked to Belinda about this, and she didn't seem to have any problems with it beside the part that said the school would provide me a safe if I had a roommate. She thought they were expensive even though we tried to tell her we found a small one at Carrefour for 99 RMB. Since it wasn't that big of a deal, we took it out. Belinda then told us that she would have to ask Richard, our main boss, if this amendment was OK to sign.

A few more days past and we waited. And then we waited some more. Belinda was having a hard time getting a hold of Richard. He supposedly had gone off on some sort of business trip or else he was trying to hide because he knew we needed his approval. He has a tendency to do things like that. Finally, Belinda came to us and said with a rather large frown upon her face, "Richard says that it is impossible because all teachers get the same lame contract so that he has every opportunity to screw them eight ways to Sunday."

Ok, ok, that is not what she really said, but that is what she meant to say, I know it. What she really said was this, "Richard says that it is impossible. He said that all teachers get the same contract."

My response was," Nothing is impossible and you need to let Richard understand that I will not sign a contract that I don't feel comfortable with. We can either reach an agreement, or I just won't sign."

It was then that we decided to talk to Richard ourselves. Looking back on it now, I think I should have decided to leave right then and there. There is no reason we ever should have had to argue over the amendment with anyone to the extent that we did. It was written in a very fair and reasonable manner and any half decent person would have realized that and signed it without hesitation. The problem is that we were not dealing with a half decent man and a part of me really A) wanted to stay and B) thought we could eventually work something out with him. I guess a year in China hadn't taught me everything I needed to know yet because like I said, looking back on it now, I would never had put myself through the hassle. It wasn't worth it. Not even in the slightest.

Flash forward a day or so. I was back in the office sitting in front of the computer wasting time as I waited for Phil to be done with teaching again when Belinda poked her head around the corner. She was holding her cell phone in her hand.

"It's Richard," she said. "He wants to talk to you." She turned and started walking down the hallway to her office. She wanted me to follow.

My heart fluttered and the quiet and still butterflies in my tummy awoke and started to jump around like mammoth bunnies. I was alone, and I hated that. I hate talking to Richard by myself because he is a bully and a manipulator. You would think knowing that little bit of information would help me immensely and it does, but I really don't like dealing with his manipulating ass over the phone. He comes off a lot more tough over the phone and very rarely can you win an argument with him, but in person he almost nearly folds. I took a deep breath and said hello while silently praying that Phil would somehow figure out where I was and save me from this asshole.

Our conversation started out nice enough, but it took all of three minutes before we started to argue. We weren't yelling at each other or anything, and that was nice, but God, I had to try so hard not to. There were many times I wanted to jump up and down on Belinda's desk and yell every dirty word in every language I could think of at him, but I restrained myself, barely. He didn't like my amendment idea at all and he really, really didn't like the idea that I wanted to make sure that the current contract agreement about my airfare being paid in full whenever it was that I decided to go home for good would continue on with my new contract. That was why we came to WECL in the first place. Our old school in Fuyang only agreed to pay up to 5,000 RMB for a flight home and so our recruiter was forced to find us a school that wouldn't mind paying for the full cost.

At this point, I really wish that I could just hit a play button so that you could hear everything that was said in the next three hours. That would make this much more simple. There is just so much to say and I have no where to begin. The only thing I can do is sum it up, I guess, or else this particular blog will end up being a mile long.

For the first hour or so, I argued with him alone. He started by saying he didn't have time to argue because he was so busy and that I should just go ahead and sign it and that we could talk about the details later. I think I laughed hysterically when he said that - or least I did in my head. He must have thought I was a complete idiot. Finally, he relented and we started going through the amendment one point at a time. For the rest of the hour we'd played tennis or perhaps I should say badminton, since I'm here in China. Someone is almost always playing it in the street. Anyway, he'd serve a ridiculous bird of a reason why he couldn't do something at me, then I would immediately smack the bird back into his court and tell him that he could and why. There were a few things that he was OK with like the part that said if I were to have a roommate that the person would be a girl and . . . well, I think that was the only part in which he agreed.

As much as I like to argue, I actually didn't argue that much with Richard. For those of you who know me well, I know that that comes as a great shock to you. :) When he said no about something, I tried two or three different ways to convince him that it was crucial to have or I wouldn't sign. When that didn't work, I just stopped arguing that particular part all together telling him I would think about removing it but that I probably wouldn't. Richard didn't want to compromise at all. He just wanted me to go ahead and give up and sign his supposed governmental contract. I say supposed because I don't think it followed many if any of the government standards. If it didn't protect me, he didn't care. And that is how it went for an hour or so. Nothing was solved and I was no nearer to signing than I was before. Sometime toward the end of our fruitless argument, Phil showed up. It didn't take him very long to figure out that I was frustrated and pissed and that the conversation was going absolutely no where. At this point, my conversation was done with Richard. In fact, I haven't spoken to him since. It was Phil's turn to argue.

Phil took the phone from me and preceded to have almost the exact same conversation that I had just had with Richard. The only difference was that Phil was being much more of hard ass and wasn't budging at all about anything and was not afraid to call Richard out on everything illegal or wrong that he had tried to pull with us or with anyone - which happens to be a whole freaking lot. This probably wasn't the smartest move to make at the time, but Phil was just being honest. He was probably getting more enjoyment out of the situation than he should, too, but that is because Phil likes to argue even more than I do. They argued for about two hours like this. I could hear the anger in Phil's voice rising, and it wasn't excessively hard to hear Richard's voice belting out of the ear piece. After two hours though, nothing was solved. We were still at the predicament that had brought us here. Richard wasn't going to change the contract and I wasn't going to sign. Phil hung up and the ulcers in my stomach started to grow. I could smell trouble.

This only scratches the surface, and like I said, I wish that I had some way of telling you what exactly was said over the phone to Richard because it would surely make this post that more exciting. If you have read any of my previous posts about Richard Guo, that may give you some idea of what we were dealing with. If not, just imagine the most vile person you think you've ever met, multiply that by say one million, and you'll have something that resembles Richard in your imagination. The real thing is much worse. Trust me on that.

So, more or less, I was left with a decision. I could either stay in Xiamen with a contract I didn't agree with/trust or go home. Even though I liked Xiamen and WECL I had to weigh both options carefully. If I stayed, Richard or someone beneath him would probably find a way screw me especially after the fiasco mentioned above. If I went home, I would have to go back to my normal Western life and look for a job and what not and all those other things that I would become responsible for again. The decision was much more difficult to make than I thought it would be, but thankfully I had several days to think it over before I had to sit before Belinda and report.

As I said in my last post, I reached the decision that it was probably best that I go home and that is what I told Belinda. I was nervous as a twit walking into her office and sitting on her plush sofa. I hated that I had to tell her that I was changing my mind, but I think she understood why I had to make that decision. Belinda doesn't like Richard either and she knows as well as I what kind of man he is. Why she ever decided to be his business partner is beyond me. Hopefully, one day she will abandon him and start her own school. Perhaps then I could teach for her. Our meeting went surprising well. There were only a few instances that she tried to convince me to stay, telling me that she thought everything would be OK. I wanted to say sure, no problem, sign me up, but I couldn't. I couldn't sign a contract based on one person's hope.

It was then that the subject of tickets home were first mentioned. We informed her that we would need the school to organize our tickets for us, but that we weren't sure exactly sure of the date yet. At this point, we were intending to travel and thinking about acquiring an L visa so that we could stay a bit longer. Neither one of us was in any hurry to get home. We told her that we would have to count our cash and look at a calendar, but that we would get back to her tomorrow. She said no problem, and we took off to our apartment. We were mostly all smiles then. Even though things hadn't worked out with my new contract and Richard, at least we were going home and the school was taking care of it. Or so we thought.

After looking at our finances and discussing whether or not it would be worth it to get an L visa and stay a little longer, we decided against it. We didn't feel like going through the hassle of applying and possibly being denied for whatever reason and having to find a cheap place to stay for how many days that we would be staying extra. It just seemed easier to get going. It made the most sense.

The next morning we came back to the school and told Moon, the head of the office staff, that we wanted to leave on the 30th of August, the day our visa expired. Yeah, it was cutting it close, but it would give us the most time to see and do everything that interested us in and around Xiamen. She said she would start looking for tickets and get back to us soon. She asked if Richard was going to pay, and we told her yes, he told us that he would. Plus, it was written in our contract that he had to.

Through our experiences in China, we decided that it would be best to go back to the school the next morning and double check on the status of our tickets home. Surprisingly, Moon had been able to find tickets for us - sort of. Apparently, like many things in China, buying plane tickets is an entirely different beast. Moon said that the agency always says that the international tickets are sold out and that in order to have a chance to get them, you have to apply for them. You have to give them all of your information like passport number, where you are going, and why. It didn't make much sense to me. The tickets that she was applying for weren't the best in the world, but they would get us home after a 11 hour layover in Seoul, South Korea and some what of a quick stop in DC. So, we had to wait another day to find out whether or not and when we would be going home.

Like a broken record, we woke up bright and early and went back to the school the next morning to find out if our application had been approved. The look on Moon's face told us the whole story before she had time to open her mouth.

"There are no tickets available."

We argued with her for awhile trying to explain that there were tickets available because we had seen them on the internet via Expedia and Travelocity. We even printed them out and showed her the flight numbers and the cost. Her eye brows raised at how much the tickets were going for. They were expensive - something like $1200 each. Phil and I tried to help by finding other agencies that sold international tickets and gave Moon all the numbers. She called them and they all told her the same thing. There were no tickets.

. . . .

Until I sit down and finish this story, you'll have to use your imagination. Soon I will be uploading a lot more pictures that I didn't post while I was in China. I just have to get them from Phil. Also, Phil should be finishing the new location of my blog soon. It is very impressive.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:52:00 +0000

I made it home in one piece, barely. I'm currently on an American high. Jet lag is kicking my butt and everyone and their brother wants to stop by and visit me. So, with that said, as soon as life gets something like normal again, I will continue with my explanation on why I decided to leave China. Sorry that I suck at posting, but life just hasn't been normal lately.

Oh, and if ANYONE knows of ANY cool jobs out there for an English major - PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Thanks in advance!

One Year

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 04:55:00 +0000

A year and 2 days ago I landed in Shanghai, China. Time flies by so fast. It feels just like yesterday I was teaching in Fuyang, China threatening to kill all my students. This year has most definitely been an experience that I will never forget and I am very glad that I kept some form of journal, my blog, so that I can go back and remind myself just in case I start to forget what exactly I have been through in these last 12 months. Even now I occasionally go back and read and am amazed.

I am still working on the super long post about why I made the decision to go home. I may have to wait until I get home to finish it. It's already over 2,000 words and I still haven't gotten to the most interesting part of the story yet. I'll see what I can do before tomorrow morning when I head out. We've just been so busy going to the last few places that we've wanted to see and spending time with the people we will probably miss the most - Patty, Eddie, and Elisa, some fellow Americans we met here in Xiamen. Also, we've been packing and cleaning for days now and we still aren't quite done yet. We still have our bedroom to dust, mop and we have to move the extra bed out of there, too. I will post the story eventually, it just might take me awhile. It's a long, evolved story, and you will understand that once you get a chance to read it.

Well, in case I don't post again until I get home - Zaijin, China.

That's A Wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:31:00 +0000

The news that I have been holding off telling is that I am going home. I'm leaving China, and I am not coming back - at least not for a good long while. I am currently working on a post that goes into the details on why I made this choice, and I will be done with that soon. Like most of my experiences in China, the story that made me make this decision is slightly complicated, long, a bit difficult, and even at times humorous, but I'll let you be the judge when you read it.

We will be leaving Xiamen at 7:15 AM on August 28th and flying to the city I love to loathe, Beijing, for our connector flight back to the States. My last impression of China will come in Beijing's international airport as I wait eight and a half hours for my plane to show up and take me home. I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing right now. A part of me is jumping for joy that I'm going; I've missed home, my family and my friends. The other part of me is in a quandary. I've had a difficult time seeing the good for all the bad lately. Not that I haven't enjoyed my time, I have . . . It's too complicated to explain right now. It will take time for me to shift through my emotions and figure out how I really feel about the whole ordeal. Perhaps you will understand better than I once you have read my side of the story. I'll finish that soon - before I leave.

Thank You, Horoscope, Thank You

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:25:00 +0000

A lot of crap has been going down lately, and I haven't really said much about it. Every time I try to compose a blog about it my thoughts get all jumbled and catch things on fire because the whole ordeal just makes me so unbelievably mad. I'll try to explain to you the frustration that these last few weeks have mad me feel in a single sentence. I'll go into all the gory details later - when my thoughts don't burn through walls.

Richard, my boss, is the devil, and all of his WECL schools are little subdivisions of hell.

Ok, and now onto other things.

Today I was sitting in the office reading a recent copy of China Daily while trying to figure out what is going to happen to Phil and I in the next two weeks or so when I came across the horoscope section. Usually, I don't read them because they are silly and absurd, but for some reason or another I found myself reading Phil's horoscope. I had already read mine and it wasn't the least bit interesting so I won't bore you with what it said. Phil's on the other hand was quite amusing, especially considering our present circumstances. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. It was as though someone had written it specifically for Phil.

Phil's Horoscope: Libra

If you have to deal with someone who is rather unreasonable and absurd, you can defang this individual by treating him or her with the same absurdity.

Round Three: Super Typhoon Sepat

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:45:00 +0000

There is another typhoon coming, yep yep, but this time it ain't no ordinary typhoon. No, this time it's a Super Typhoon - Super Typhoon Sepat to be exact. Sounds dangerous, huh? Well, it should. This is Butterfly's(Wutip's) big brother and he is coming to beat me up for making fun of his little sister. Sepat ain't no joke either. This sucker is a whopping typhoon and he means business. He's as big as they get too - weighing in as a category 5. Currently his maximum winds are clocking in at 160 MPH and the gusts are at 195 MPH.

I feel really bad that Taiwan is going to get the brunt of this storm, but I am also rather relieved that Super Typhoon Sepat and all its glory will most likely die down as it crosses over the mountains of Taiwan before crossing the straight and doing a bee-line for Xiamen. If we are lucky, it will be a category 1 or 2 before it starts to pelt us with its winds and rain.

I'm much too young to die.

Something I found interesting is that no one freaking knows that it is coming. I talked to 5 Chinese people today and not one of them had heard of it. One of them even laughed and told me it would be a piece of cake. Yes, a piece of cake. I hope for his sake that he is right. Sepat might just make him into a piece of cake. A Chinese cake. They don't really prepare for these things either. No one is boarding up windows or what not even though all of the tracking modules say, "Hello, my name is Sepat, and I coming to your city for a visit because I heard it is nice this time of year."

Eh, hopefully it won't be that bad. We are going to buy some water and what not so that if it is, we will be prepared. I just hope who ever built our apartment didn't slack off when he put our place together.h

Round Two: Typhoon Wutip AKA Butterfly

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:32:00 +0000

Well, Typhoon Paduk didn't even make a leaf fall. The only thing we got were its clouds, a nice breeze, and three drops of rain. It traveled too far west for it to effect us at all. It was nice not getting the main brunt of it because the clouds and the wind have made the weather much more enjoyable and pleasant. With humidity and the heat index, temperatures have been hitting the 101 mark recently. I thought that was hot until I heard that temperatures back home have been maxing out at nearly 120. Apparently, there is a crazy heat wave affecting many areas of America right now.

And apparently, there is another typhoon coming this way. This one's name is Wutip, at least that is what we Westerners are calling it. It is something a little different in Chinese, but my students told me that it's name translates into Butterfly. Yes, Butterfly. Who in the world would name a typhoon butterfly?? Typhoons aren't pretty and graceful! They're horrible, non-forgiving forces of nature that destroy things!! I guess that would make an interesting horror movie . . . Killer Butterflies. This one actually looks like it may come closer to us, but it is not as strong as Paduk was. Although, I guess anything can happen. There is that little stretch of water that could feed the typhoon and make it stronger before it hits land again. You can see where they think it might go by looking at the graphic below.

Typhoon Pabuk

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:59:00 +0000

Time to batten down the hatches and board up all the windows because Typhoon Pabuk is heading this way! Technically it is just a tropical storm, but hey, who knows what may happen in the next 24 hours or so. Heh. And besides, Typhoon Pabuk sounds much cooler than tropical storm Pabuk.

Currently it is located between Taiwan(if that gives you an idea where I am) and Xiamen. Xiamen is a little north of where the 9 PM circle is - at least I think. Take a gander at the graphic. It has all the info on it.

Hopefully, it won't be too bad. Living in Columbia, South Carolina, I only get what is left of tropical storms and hurricanes. I've never lived close enough to the coast to worry or care all that much.

I guess if it decides to get really crazy, I'll at least be happy and safe in the confines of a Japanese restaurant feasting on sushi while the winds try blowing me away.

Oh, and in other news, I think my days in China are numbered. I'll get into that more later.

China Blog Awards 2007 Results

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 02:35:00 +0000

Well, I didn't take first, but I did manage to get the next best thing - second place(technically 3rd - read on for more information)with a total of 149 votes in the personal blog category. I was really surprised by the amounts of votes that I received. I didn't think that many people knew that my little blog existed. Makes me feel sorta special, really. : ) Perhaps now even more people know about my blog. That was the main purpose of Chinalyst holding the China Blog Awards. They wanted to drive traffic to the China blogosphere and promote link-love between the China blogs. I know that it worked for me because I found a lot of interesting blogs that I hadn't heard of before in these past few weeks. I'll have to add their links to the side of my page so that you can read through them too. There are a lot of great writers and photographers out there.

So, who beat me?

I was bested by Beijing Boyc e who received a total of 198 votes. He sorta came out of no where toward the end, going from 26th to 1st, but I give him my congratulations nonetheless. Ryan's blog, The Humanaught, who is the rightful owner of second place, came in with a total of 155 votes. Ryan has decided not to accept his second place win and out of the kindness of his heart has passed it down to me. I was followed closely by Ben's blog, Midwesterner in the Middle Kingdom, who came in third with a total of 126 votes. My congratulations go out to him too, as well as all the others who participated. If you want to see the winners in the other categories, go here.

A Week in Yangshuo - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:38:00 +0000

After my super long post about my week in Yangshuo, I have decided that this time around I'm just going to post a hell of a lot of pictures. I find that I get carried away when I write and never know when to shut up. It is almost as bad as when I talk. So, here you go, more pictures and a lot less words to go with them. Enjoy.

Phil and I walked out into the country side and what a pretty country side it was.

Phil looks so little amongst the mountains.
Looks like someone could step on him.

This reminded me of my friend's band, Black Bottom Biscuits.
They have a song called Fish Beer.

Standing on the riverside in Yangshuo. Such a pretty view. So surreal.

I am putting this picture here to show off the awesomeness of my new camera.
I was standing on a bridge when I took this.
And he wasn't below me. He was further up river.

A wee little village outside of Yangshuo. I think it was called Mu Shan.

I look happy in this picture, but don't let that smile fool you.
I was so hot and miserable, it wasn't even funny.
I didn't think I was going to make it back to the hotel.

Mu Shan transportation.

A picture of a pretty flower.

I thanked this little guy for sitting still long enough for me to get a good picture of him. I have never seen a dragonfly with a red tail before. There are some many interesting animals and insects in China. You just have to search for them.

Work and Potter

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:50:00 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but between school, students, and the new Harry Potter book, I just haven't had any time to post. I would say I would post something later today, but tonight is our scavenger hunt and after that I know I will be too tired to write anything. And I would say I would write something tomorrow, but we have classes as a make up for not having classes on Wednesday because the whole area of Qiao Fu Cheng lost power yet again. So the earliest day for me to sit down are write something meaningful would be on Sunday, my only day of rest before I got back to teaching for the week. No promises, but I will see what I can do. I am just so freaking tired.

Student Life

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:19:00 +0000

School has started back and that means no more vacation.

My first day of school went fairly well. I was really surprised how many students they were able to collect for the summer session. Patty counted 49 heads during our opening ceremony, but that number may grow or fall as the summer progresses. Everyday things change around here. It's a Chinese way, and I have come to accept it.

This session, I am teaching Advance Let's Talk(that is the name of the book) and Beginners Interchange(ditto). There are about 15 or so in each class, which is a hell of a lot more than I had last semester. In my beginners class last semester, I had four, and in my advance class I only had 3. I thought last semester was nice, but this so far is even better. I feel even more like a teacher than before. The fact that the students are nice and have come prepared to learn is just a bonus. A teacher can't really ask for anything more. Well, I wish they would talk more, but that will come in time as they get used to me, their classmates and speaking English on a daily basis.

On the first day of classes, I spent the entire class(50 minutes) introducing myself. That is what I always do when I meet a new bunch of students. It gives them a chance to know who I am and what I am all about instead of just my name and where I am from. Well, after introducing myself to them, I told them that in our next meeting that they would be responsible for introducing themselves to me as well as to their fellow classmates.

I was a little apprehensive. I didn't think that they would actually go home and plan something to say or that my beginners would be able to string two sentences together, but both of my classes exceeded my expectations.

I was specifically surprised my beginners. Many of them came with little speeches written down and the rest had memorized what they were going to say. For beginners, they did remarkably well. Their English wasn't perfect, but for their level, they did an awesome job. I had only expected a simple, "Hello, my name is blah blah blah and I am from blah blah blah." Nearly every student had something interesting to say about themselves - their favorite color, favorite sport, and hobby.

My Advance class did very well, too. Some of them shouldn't even be there because their English is already that good, but they think they need more practice. I guess practice can't hurt. They were all very well spoken and told me a lot of their lives and their dreams. I found out that one of the boys in the class is a stamp collector. The only other stamp collector I have met is my mother. A lot of them want to travel the world, one girl wanted to be a romance writer, one boy wants to be a financial advisor, and another girl wants to own her own bar. They all want to be rich, but don't we all? They are an interesting bunch, that is for sure.

The one thing that I noticed that nearly every student, both from my beginner and advance level, said was this -

"There are three people in my family - my father, my mother and I."

I know why China brought the One Child Policy into being. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with it, but I can understand it. Even though I understand it, it still makes me sad that nearly all of my students grew up siblingless. In America, it is quite different. The majority of families have more than one child because they can. The minority of families have only one child because they want to. Here in China, the majority of families only have one child because that is all that they are allowed. Only a few are able to have more - for reasons that are set down in the rules somewhere.

It especially made me sad when one of my students asked me today:

"When you were little, did you fight with your brothers and sisters?"

Oh, yes, did I.

It is a sad that so many people here in China will never get the joy of breaking the heads of their brother's GI Joe's . It may not be a critical part of childhood, but it sure is a fun one.

A Week in Yangshuo - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 19:27:00 +0000

Ah, vacation.

I've had plenty of vacation time here in China, more weeks than I can shake a stick at, but none of them have really been spent relaxing or enjoying myself. Almost every time the two of us get a little break from teaching, one of us usually comes down with a week long bug or something(or someone) evil intervenes forcing us to abandon our elaborate plans. The prime example of this was when we planned a trip around China with one of Phil's students, Holy, during the Chinese New Year, but then our school held some of documents hostage. This in turn forced us to leave the country in order to get new visas and then the real craziness of being bounced all over China began. There are a lot of posts about it in January, February, March and even a few entries in April 2007.

Thankfully, nothing crazy went down during the first week of our summer vacation. I am glad to report that everything went pretty much as planned, except for the time that Phil almost got ran over by a semi or when we both almost got eaten by a really pissed off dog. Other than that and a few persistent mosquitoes, I think it was one of the best vacations that I have been on, in China or back home in America. So, I guess if I am going to tell it straight, I should probably start at the very beginning. I hope you like to read because I can write as much as I can talk- hence my nickname Gabby Girl. However, if you get bored by my rambling, you can just scroll down the page and look at some of the pictures that I took. These pictures are mainly from the first and second days in Guilin and Yangshuo but there are a few from the third.

We took the late flight out of Xiamen International Airport(11:10 pm) because it was 130 RMB cheaper(each) even though it would put us in Guilin early in the morning(12:30 am). Living on a teacher's salary, Phil and I will do anything to save money. Since we are still young chickens, staying up till one or so isn't a hard thing to accomplish. Ask me to do the same thing in about 40 years or so and I might not be so eager to save. :) The tickets were one way and cost us each 730 RMB($96.00). It doesn't sound like a lot if you are making American dollars, but it can seem like a a lot when it is nearly 1/5 of your monthly salary. Plus, it only covers getting there. Phil and I had saved up enough so it wasn't that much of a big deal. The sad part is that the train from Xiamen to Nanning to Guilin was just as expensive even though it took three freaking days longer. That still doesn't make a lot of since.

Like most of our experiences with planes in China(save that particular journey from Beijing to Shenyang that took 4 tries), our plane took off right on schedule. Some people weren't even seated yet, but they closed the hatch and started backing up anyway. It's like they are on some timetable and they have to follow it to a T regardless if someone had time to check the plane over or not. I swear, I'll probably die on a Chinese plane. On this particular plane, the left engine sounded rather flaky. There were several moments where I had to close my eyes and say a prayer, but then the flight attendant came and gave me a bag of peanuts and a glass of Coke to help ease my anxiety. Soon I forgot all about the rumbling coming from over my left shoulder. Other than that, our flight was fine. And as you can tell, since you are reading this now, I didn't die. :)

Once we disembarked we headed for the CAAC bus. I don't know what CAAC stands for, but it's an airport bus that costs each person 20 RMB to be taken into the city of Guilin. The airport is about 20 KM outside of Guilin. It has several stops, the first being just down the street from where the bus and train station are located. Taking the CAAC bus was by far the cheaper option. If we had wanted to get to our hostel fast for any reason, we could have gotten in any of the taxis waiting by the front door. We didn't because it would have cost 90 RMB(as long as the taxi driver didn't take the long route) to get to our hostel. Since I had heard so many negative things about Guilin and how everyone tries to rip you off, I wanted to avoid the possibility all together. The cool thing about the bus is that the woman who took our money spoke English and knew exactly where we needed to get off. When it was our stop, she even stepped off and pointed us in the direction of our hostel as about a dozen Chinese taxi drivers bombarded us with one of the few English words besides hello that they knew.

"Taxi?!" They all screamed at once. I think one even grabbed my arm and tried to nudge me in the direction of his waiting taxi. I really felt like I was being attacked by hungry vultures.

"Bu yao, xie xie," Phil and I said several times very politely as we pushed our way through them. I thought they would have listened and tried to pester some other poor soul, but no, there was no one else to pester. They started following us down the street still screaming TAXI at us as though we were deaf or something. There was even this one particular guy who had gotten in his taxi and started shadowing us up the street hoping that we would give into his calls. This annoyed me, so I turned around to tell him to go bug off in the only language I knew how. As soon as I turned around he thought this was me accepting his invitation, but he was wrong. For some reason he even jumped out of his taxi. Why? I don't know, unless he thought we needed help with our backpacks - which we didn't. "No," I said. "We don't need a taxi. We are going to walk." I put two fingers on the palm of my hand, made them "walk", and the pointed in the direction that we were going. He found this hysterical and started laughing at me. Maybe he thought I was insane to want to walk at night in Guilin to a place I wasn't exactly sure where it was. Whatever his reason, he turned around and got back his taxi. He stared at us a second longer and laughed at us again as he drove into the darkness.

As we tried to find our way to Flowers Youth Hostel all sorts of taxi drivers bled out of the darkness. It was rather creepy, really. For the most part the streets were empty. The only signs of life were the legit taxis trying very hard to convince us that we needed to be driven to our destination(1 KM away) and the non-legit taxis(motor bikes) tapping their seats with gruesome smiles on their faces. We also saw this woman sitting in a old, rickety booth on the corner of alley way. The booth had bars and was illuminated in red. I have no idea what she was selling, but I know for sure it wasn't lemonade.

Finally, after much confusion of which way to go and who to believe when we asked which way our hostel was, we found it across the street from the train station, down an alley way hidden completely from view. If it hadn't been a guy sitting in an empty fruit cart(which I thought was trying to get us to go to a different hotel at first), we would have never have seen the sign obstructed by the buildings in front of it. When we turned the corner in the dimly lit building this is what greeted us on the wall.

Doesn't it look like we should be entering a horror movie with the way it is written on the wall. It almost looks as though it was written in blood. Eek! Low budget hostels call for low budget signs, I guess.

Beside the hostel's "sign" on the wall, we saw this. It looked equally inviting.

What kind of tourism reception is this exactly? I don't know if it is the light, the letters, the dirt on the wall or some combination of the three, but the L in bicycle looks like it is floating off the wall. You can almost see what looks to be like it its shadow. Beware of the letter L!

We climbed the stairs to the second floor, but when we got there we didn't see any more creepy signs or arrows to follow. Sometimes hostels really know how to hide. Luckily, I heard some voices drifting down a partially lit corridor that could possibly show me the way, so I decided to investigate. Through the window I could see a Chinese woman lounging on a couch and another woman mopping the floor. The two of them were too engrossed in their conversation to notice the two laowais standing in the doorway.

"Ni hao," I said, hoping to catch their attention but not scare the bejesus out of them at the same time. During my year of teaching I've noticed that Chinese people scare particularly easy. Sometimes a simple BOO will send them reeling. Because I am super evil, I try to find all sorts of ways to scare my students. It keeps them on their toes. But anyway, I digress.

The woman holding the mop nearly fainted. She threw her hand over her heart. I'm sure she said something along the lines of, "You scared me to death, woman!" I apologized and gave her several minutes to collect herself. After she caught her breath and her heart rate had gone down, she realized that the two foreigners standing in front of her were not selling tooth brushes, but needed a room. She asked if we had a reservation and we said yeah, but she couldn't find any of our paper work. Thankfully, they still had a few rooms available. Hostelworld , the internet service we use to book hostels in China, works most of them time, but occasionally gives us hiccups.

"You want to see the rooms first?" She asked?

"Sure." She handed us two keys. One was for a room on the first floor, and the other was for a room on the fourth. We decided to go to the fourth floor first and see what the room had to offer. After stumbling through the dark and the maze of stairs we finally got to room 421.

There was no handle. Well, there was, but not the kind you see on normal doors. I don't even know how to describe it to you really. It was like a nob, but much smaller. You could barely get your fingers around it to turn it and it seemed as though it was about to fall off/out.

"Well, this looks promising," I chuckled, as Phil finally got the key in and opened the door. He found the light switch beside the door and flipped it.

In unison we gasped, "Oh. My. God."

The walls were yellow, brown, white, and even black. No, this was not some creative painter at work. The walls were covered in mold. We didn't stay long enough to inspect further. I was too shocked to even take a picture of it, which I now wish I had. Words do not do it justice. It was truly scary. We quickly killed the lights and locked the door.

"And that is why there were no pictures of the room," Phil said in reference to hostelworld as we walked down the stairs to the first floor. "Now I can totally understand why." The only pictures of the hostel on hostelworld were of the lobby, which in comparison to the room we had just seen, was freaking awesome!

We stood before room 117 with the key dangling from the lock. This door actually had a handle, so that was a step in the right direction. Perhaps what was on the other side of the door would prove better too. When Phil opened the door and hit the light switch nothing happened. The room stayed dark. I was just about to utter some obscenities when WALLAH, the light above our head came to life. I guess it had to warm up or something.

What we saw wasn't perfect, but it was doable. The walls were a little moldy, but only in a few places - sorta like our apartment was before we cleaned it. The room, the walls, and the furniture all screamed mental institution, but then I reminded myself it was just for one night and that I could deal with that. Without any argument, we decided to take room 117 instead. I was a bit apprehensive in putting my head on the pillow and pulling my the covers up to my chin, but within 10 minutes or so - because that is about how quickly I fell asleep.

We woke up early the next morning to the smell of bacon. For half a second I thought I was back home and that my mom was making me breakfast, but then I remembered that I was in China and that my mother was some 7000 miles away. Even though we had only slept for a few hours, we somehow convinced ourselves to roll out of bed. It was now time to go and find the bus to Yangshuo.

It was actually incredibly easy and for the record, it was the bus that found us. We were walking toward the bus station when one of those big touristy buses pulled down the road we were walking on. We almost didn't pay it any notice, but then a woman jumped out and started screaming YANGSHUO in our faces. We weren't sure if it was legit or not, but she seemed insistent that the bus we take us to intended destination. I looked at Phil and he looked at me. We both shrugged our shoulders and said, "Why the hell not?"

From this point on, our vacation was reasonably easy. The bus we got on did indeed go to Yangshuo, but before we could even really start going there, the woman in charge of the money had to ask everyone we passed if they wanted to go to Yangshuo. The woman was very good at convincing people who probably really had no need or want to go to Yangshuo to get on the bus and go anyway. Many people who seemed to be doing nothing in particular hoped on for shits and giggles. It was rather interesting to watch. Although, listening to her scream YANGSHUO from the bus door every three and a half minutes got old rather quick. :)

The ride to Yangshuo was very beautiful and it gave us a peek of what we would be seeing once we got there. Most of the bus ride was through the countryside of Guangxi. We got to see a lot rural farm areas and a whore of water buffalo. I think the trip from Guilin to Yangshuo took just a little more than an hour, but it was enjoyable.

And finally, after all those months of waiting, saving and planning - we were there. Now we just need to find our hotel.

Here is Phil looking out the window at the mountains.

I had been told that it should cost 5 RMB to get to the hotel, but when I started showing the local transportation the address to the hotel in Chinese, I knew that was not going to be the case. More than one person quoted us 30 RMB, and I was not about to shell that out when I knew it could be had cheaper. Phil insisted that we walk, but that was kinda hard considering we didn't exactly know how to get there. We walked quite a ways and had many people say they would take us for thirty before we found a guy that would take us for a total of 10 RMB. That seemed more than fair, so we took his offer.

The local transportation in Yangshuo consists mainly of these three.

1. Tourist Shuttle Buses
2. Motor bikes with carts built onto the back
3. Motor bikes

The tourist shuttle buses are the legal ones, but they don't take you directly where you want to go. They have set routes. So, if you want to go off the beaten path - these will not help you in the slightest. I don't know how much they are because I never rode in one while I was in Yangshuo. If I had to guess I would say between 10 - 30 RMB.

The motor bikes with the carts built onto the back remind me of horse carriages. This type of transportation maybe more convenient, but they are illegal as well. If you don't see these at particular times it is because the cops came and scared them off for a while. Most of these people wanted to charge us 30 RMB to take us about a mile and a half to our hotel, but on many occasions we got them down to 10. Although illegal, for the driver - not you, this is the most convenient and safest way to travel unless you have a bicycle or you love to walk.

The motor bikes are illegal too. Locals just aren't allowed to transport foreigners. They want the money to go to the city instead of the hands of the locals. Every time that we took one from the hotel to any destination within the city it cost us 10 RMB total. I wouldn't recommend this mode of transportation unless you have a helmet and you know for a fact that your driver knows what he or she is doing.

To get to the hotel we took the horse carriage like thing. He didn't actually take us all the way to our hotel, but he at least took us to the dirt road that led to it. Thankfully there were more than enough signs to point us in the right direction. The owners of the place really didn't want you getting lost. About every 10 feet or so there was another sign with arrows directing the way.

The place that we stayed, Riverside Retreat, was absolutely amazing. It is a little bit out of town, maybe a brisk 15 minute walk, but the views and the staff are worth it. The rates are very reasonable too. For a room with a queen size bed, a spectacular view and a balcony, we paid 180 RMB a night. I would definitely stay there again if I went to Yangshuo again. It was clean, quiet and comfortable. We really couldn't have asked for anything better.

Here is a picture of the room we stayed in. The bed was extra comfy.

This picture was taken from our balcony. I wish I could have gotten the sky to look better, but at the time I hadn't yet figured my new camera out - and truthfully, I am still working on that. Heh. That in Yangshuo in the distance.

We had the western breakfast that the hotel offered after we got settled into our room. For a plate full of eggs, bacon, and two pieces of toast with jelly, it cost us 15 RMB each. They cooked the eggs and the bacon particularly well. It was very tasty.

After taking an afternoon nap, we awoke to explore the city. The city of Yangshuo is nice. It's relatively small, but has an overwhelming western feel to it. That is mostly felt near and on West Street. It is yet another pedestrian street full of trinkets and goodies as well as bars and restaurants. The people are nice here, if not a little pushy. Like most westernized parts of China things can be a little on the pricey side. If you don't want to get ripped off, you have to bargain really hard.

I didn't come to Yangshuo because of the western feel it radiates though. I came for the views that I couldn't see else where in China or the world - so they say. I came for the beauty that it offers. One thing is for sure though,Yangshuo did not disappoint. It met my expectations and more. I'll stop my jibber jabbering though so that you can enjoy some of the pictures I took of the surrounding area. I'll continue with the story of our vacation in Yangshuo in a day or two.

This was taken standing on Yangshuo Bridge. The mountains are incredible.

This was also taken on Yangshuo Bridge, but on the other side.

I have a thing about bridges I guess. This too was taken on a bridge.
A different one though.

I found these two women washing their clothes and chatting the afternoon away.

I'm not sure if he is a fisherman or a trash collector.

This dragonfly let me get really close with my camera. Thank you Mr. Dragonfly. Thank you super micro shot.

There are about a million water buffalo in Yangshuo.
It was almost hot enough for me join this guy in Li River,
but I didn't know what he would thought about the idea.

Sorry if this post suddenly seemed to fall flat. It's now 3:25 am, and I'm horribly exhausted. I just wanted to make sure I finished it. School starts back in a day and I wasn't sure when I would have enough time to really go into detail.

Vote for the Maniac

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:13:00 +0000

For those of you who haven't heard of the 2007 China Blog Awards, let me give you the low down.

Over at Chinalyst, there is a competition of sorts taking place. It's basically a venue created for people to vote for their favorite China blogs. Well, as you can imagine, being a China blogger, I am one of the many in the running for the pretty award you see to your left.

I'm not going to beg or anything(oh, please, please, vote for me) but I thought I would at least bring it to your attention so as to give you the opportunity to voice your opinion. :)

Voting is fairly simple. All you need to do is click on any of the blue links you see in this post or the picture with the pretty award, scroll down until you see my blog's long title strewn across your screen and click on the little plus sign below it. And wallah, your done!

After you give my blog some love, you can peruse the many other China blogs that perhaps you haven't stumbled upon yet. There are a lot of good ones out there. Maybe you will find some more blogs that you feel like voting for - there are several different categories. Mine is under personal blogs, if you didn't know.

Thanks a bunch.

Fourth of July?

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:59:00 +0000

I'm such a bad American.

Somehow or another, I completely forgot about the Fourth of July. I probably would have forgotten about it all together had I not hopped on the computer at out hotel/hostel in Yangshuo to email my folks back home. After quickly composing the "I'm fine and it's beautiful here" email to them, I scanned through the ones that I had received since leaving Xiamen on the first of July. Strangely, this was the first and only time in the span of six days that I surfed the world wide web. I think it's a personal best, really, considering my awful addiction to the the great WWW. I guess Yangshuo kept me pretty busy because I didn't really think much of it until I got back to Xiamen this afternoon. I've more or less been on my computer ever since. Heh. :)

So yeah, the whole idea that the Fourth of the July had actually come and gone a whole day earlier didn't even register until I read these words at the bottom of my Dad's email. "Hoping you have a safe and patriotic Independence Day!" I had to stop and think about what it said for a second.

"Independence Day?" I thought to myself. "The Fourth of July?" I looked down at the date on my watch. A little 5 stared back at me. "Is it really the fifth of July?" I then looked at the date on the right hand corner of the computer. "Holy crap, it is the fifth!"

I guess the lack of American flags, firework stands and constant TV ads to remind me made me completely forget that it was that time of year. That is how it is for most holidays here in China. Unless it's Christmas, all the other holidays you grew up celebrating sort of fade into the background. To keep the traditions going in this home so far away from home, I have to try my best to remember when the holidays are even if I am not surrounded by all the decorations and other hoopla related to them. Lucky for me, I'm in China, the land that invented fireworks. If I really want to, I can go down and buy a warehouse full of fireworks and celebrate with all the hoopla I want until I am blue in the face. And since I can do that, I think I just might.

Who cares if it is a few days late. It's the thought that counts.

I'll start posting my 4.2 GB of pictures tomorrow that I collected on my trip to Yangshuo, but for now I am going to bed.

Leaving on a Jet Plane . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:24:00 +0000

Well, as of 11:20 am this afternoon, my summer vacation has begun. Tonight, at 11:10 pm, I'm boarding a plane at the Xiamen International Airport, and getting the hell out of here! :) Yippy Skippy, as Miss Piggy would say.

Phil and I are going first to Guilin and staying at the Guilin Flowers International Hostel for a night. I have no idea if it is a good or bad hostel, but it is near the first stop of the CAAC - the bus that goes from the airport toward the actual city of Guilin. I just need a place to put my head, so I don't really care.

When we wake up, we aren't going to try and deal with the city. We are going straight to the bus station and going to Yangshuo, the supposed Backpacker's mecca. We've been wanting to go for quite some time, but we've been either poor or entirely too busy with other China related stuff.

Speaking of poor - I am officially poor again. Well, not poor like we were after being bounced all around China a few months before, but poorer none the less. We are poor because we just went out and bought a super freaking awesome camera, so that I can take super freaking awesome pictures from now on.

We bought the Canon Powershot S5 IS at the Suning across town for about $490.00 - or 3760 RMB, but the camera came with a bag, 2G card, and a rather large tripod. And for what the camera does, it was a pretty good deal. Although, after playing with it for a few hours last night, I was ready to toss it out the window because it has one too many settings and I have no idea what any of them do yet. Today though, I feel I have a better understanding. Finding the manual in English on the internet helped too. Everything in print in the box was in freaking Chinese. I know, I know. I'm in China, but couldn't they have included a section or something in English for the possible Laowai that might buy the camera?! Oh, well, it doesn't really matter much anymore. Everything is all good. I mean, I still have to read the manual and play around with it, but I think I will be very happy. Having really nice pictures and videos will be a super plus too. My 5 year old Kodak was on her last leg - it was time for her to be replaced. I'll put some sample shots later. They are super awesome.

Well, I guess that I should jet. I've still got to pack and what not. We'll be gone until the 11th, so don't be expecting any regular posts during that time - not that I have been regular lately anyway, but that is beside the point.

Oh, and Yahoo is unblocked again. I guess someone flipped that switch again.

Yahoo Blocked in China?

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:45:00 +0000

What a load of crap.

Maybe it's a glitch. Maybe someone fixed the broken light switch located in the hallway of my apartment in Fuyang, China. I never did figure out what that switch turned on or off.

But that is just me thinking positive.

After having my mom check to see if Yahoo was up in running state side, she confirmed what I already feared - China has gone and really done it. They've blocked Yahoo here in China.

This is totally not cool. Even though I don't use Yahoo for email anymore, I still frequent it to check what's going on in the world. I was a smart cookie and switched to Google when that nasty earthquake killed the internet access between America and China, but that is beyond the point.

The point is - I hope they can see this because I'm doing it as hard as I can.

Coming Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:20:00 +0000

Well, after fighting the Great Fire Wall of China for the greater part of the last year, I've given up. Yep, I'm throwing in the towel and jumping overboard. Like many before me, I've decided that it is just easier owning my own space. Because China hates Blogger, and blocks it on and off(more on), I've decided to give my blog a new home where people both far and away can view it without having to jump through hoops of fire. Tushes should not be burnt in the process of reading about my daily life in China. That just isn't right.

That is the main reason why I haven't been posting lately. I've been busy trying to figure out the best place to host my blog. It's unbelievable how many many hosting services are blocked in China. On top of trying to find one that wasn't blocked, I've had to look for one that actually gave me a half decent service for a price that I could afford. That process was actually harder than it should be. I'll write all about that later.

After weeks of scouring the Internet, the search is over. Thank God. I finally have a nice, new home for my little blog. Phil is still working out the details so that it looks pretty on it's debut. He's adding a lot of cool features and making it really user friendly. When everything is ironed out and ready to be published, I'll come back here and give you all the link. It should be ready in the next few days.

The service that I decided to go with offers IP banning and it made me start thinking . . . is it possible to get the IP address of the computer(s)Nanny uses so that she can't come to my site and block it. :) How cool would that be?

I'll try to get a few cool pictures up this week before Phil and I run off to Guilin and Yangshuo for a week and half. If you have any suggestions about the area - I would love to hear them! Keep checking back though so you can update your links.

The Eye

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:05:00 +0000

Every so often I get bored and decide to take pictures of myself. I know, I know - how vain of me! Here are the results of my latest session with boredom. They aren't exciting or anything, but they made me think of the time when I showed this little Chinese kid my eyes in Hangzhou.

Back when we lived in Fuyang, we were invited to go to a food festival by one of Phil's students. After stuffing ourselves with all sorts a weird, but fantastic food, we were informed that we were going to finish the night by going to a nice restaurant across town. There was no way I was going to be able to eat anything, but Phil and I agreed and promised to eat as much(or as little) as was possible. We thought we were going to be joined by the student's parents, but neither stayed in the room very long. They were too busy running around the restaurant socializing. They just wanted to give their son ample time to practice his English. In that, they succeeded.

Sometime into the feast(Phil was somehow able to down a rather large portion) another boy entered the room. He was first introduced as the student's brother, but we later discovered he was just a family friend. I guess he was invited to practice his English with the foreigners. He was shy at first, but before long we had him using what English he knew. We even taught him a few new words and phrases. Somehow or another we got on the conversation of how westerners look different than Chinese.

The boy that had entered the room had never before seen a foreigner's eyes, so I offered to show him what mine looked like. I stood up and walked to the other side of the table where he was sitting, bent over so that I was at eye level with him, and opened my eyes as wide as I could. It was almost hysterical. The boy jumped out of his chair, nearly knocking it over, as if he had seen a ghost or something. I don't know exactly what he saw in the depths of my eyes, but he wouldn't sit back down until I was safely seated in my chair. I couldn't help but giggle. He acted very similarly when Phil leaned over to show him his blue eyes. I guess he thought all the people in the world had dark eyes up until that moment in time. That would probably freak me out too.

I particularly like how you can see the reflection of the bars of our balcony.

Perhaps this is what the boy saw instead! I'd be pretty freaked out too.

Student Life

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:00:00 +0000

After going over simple present Wh-questions I asked my students if they understood what their brains had just absorbed. Like always, they said yes, even though I knew that they hadn't fully comprehended it. So, I decide to test their knowledge.

"Emma," I said, "I want you to think, imagine, pretend that you are wearing a dress. OK? "

"OK," Emma said.

"Alright. You are wearing a dress. What do you want to wear with the dress?"

She stopped and thought about it. She even repeated the question a few times to herself, looked to Lisa(the Queen of translating) for possible help, and then finally back to me with apprehension in her eyes. She cleared her throat and very sure of herself said, "I want to wear Lisa."

I couldn't help myself. I started to giggle. Lisa started to giggle because she actually understood what Emma had just said. Monica started to giggle only because the rest of us were even though she had no clue why. Emma sat there for a moment watching us all giggle and then it hit her.

"Oh! No, no, no!" She said emphatically. " I want to wear a coat! A coat!"

This, on top of them questioning me about homosexuality, totally made my day. Yes, for some strange reason they were very curious about that particular topic.

Totally Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 15:04:00 +0000

Yesterday Phil and I decided to do our weekly shopping at the Wal-Mart located inside of the SM shopping mall. We'd only been there once before very briefly looking for a modem(which they didn't have), so we wanted to go back and see what kind of selections that they had in comparison to the other stores in town.

We usually shop at Carrefour because it is the closest store to us, but occasionally we will go to the other Wal-Mart(it's closer than the SM mall), Trust Mart or the very far away Metro(1 hour by bus). Carrefour is probably the most convenient, less crowded of the bunch and has most of what we need, but is often sold out of or doesn't have what exactly it is we are looking for. This is the case for the other stores too though. All of the stores have the basics, but each one seems to have only one or two of the things that we really like to buy. This of course, makes us store hop until we have everything that we need. If all the stores could just combine - shopping would be a breeze.

The SM Wal-Mart wasn't much different. Like the other stores, it had all the basics plus a few other items that are hard to come by elsewhere. It was however a little different. Different enough to lure me back in a few weeks or sooner depending on how soon I need a refill.

Cereal isn't hard to come by in Xiamen. Even in Fuyang, I was able to get my hands on brands I was familiar with. All the major chain stores usually have one or another brand to choose from in their imported section. Depending on what country they come from effects how much money you are going to have to shell out for them. American brands are always the most expensive, but they sometimes have Korean(I think they are Korean) versions sitting beside them for a much smaller box at a much lower price. The Korean versions to me taste the same, but the choices are much more limited. If I want something familiar - it is either Cheerios or Trix - everything else is the real thing, in a much bigger box, and much more expensive. The real thing being American Cheerios, Rice Crispies, Frosted Mini Wheats, Raisin Brand and a few others. The price on these range from 40 - 50 RMB($5 -6). To you that my not sound like a lot, but in order to save money to travel and to enjoy other luxuries in China, we have to watch the money we spend. If it costs 40- 50 RMB and we are going to eat it - it better either A) last a very long time or B) be damn good. Cereal only lasts so long and it isn't quite to damn good level yet. Cheese on the other hand is . . . and we only splurge on that every once in a blue moon.

So, you can imagine my surprise and disbelief when I spied a HUGE box of Honey Comb sitting amongst the usual suspects with a price tag of 19.90 RMB. My first guess was that it either A) was the box was in the wrong place or B) had expired a year ago. Neither turned out to be the case. I had a lady ring it up to make sure it was indeed 19.90 and then double checked the expiry date. I was so happy to see Best Before August 2007 starring me in the face. I almost chucked two boxes in the buggy, but remembered that there are other more important things that we want to do in China than eat Honey Comb for breakfast.

Nothing reminds me of home like Honey Comb in the morning.

Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 07:21:00 +0000

"Don't ask a question if you already know the answer."

Ah, I have heard that statement many of times, but yet I don't follow it.

Today in class we were going over an exercise that was talking about Japanese food. I thought hey, what the heck, while on the subject I'll ask how they feel about Japan. Other students have asked me if I liked Japan, Korea(they never mentioned north or south) and what I thought about 9/11. I mean, if they can ask - why can't I? So, I did.

"Do you guys like Japan."

Usually, I have to explain myself, but this time they understood completely.

"NO! I hate Japan!" Emma said ecstatically. She really said it in bold italics, too.

Although I half expected it, I was taken aback just a little. Maybe it had to do with the bold italics thing. "Ok, Monica, what about you? Do you like Japan?"

"NO! I hate Japan too!"

At this point in the conversation I thought, well, I've already taken the plunge, I might as well take a swim while I'm at it.

"Why?" Ah, as a teacher you have to love this question.

"Because . . . because . . . a long time ago," Emma started, but her tongue couldn't spit out what she wanted to say in English. I could see the emotion behind her eyes and could all most hear the Chinese version of what she wanted to say bouncing in between her ears. "Because," she said, lifting up her hands. She balled one into a fist and left the other one flat and open. I knew what was coming. It was pretty obvious. How else is one supposed to express hate and war without being able to verbalize it? And then it happened. She started pummeling her open hand with her fist. "Because," she said, "Because."

They were both quiet for a minute. They were frustrated that they couldn't tell me why exactly, but I told them that that was OK and that I understood.

"Do you like Japan?" Emma asked.

Well, I don't believe in lying so I told them the truth. "Yes." Both of their eyes squinted together and their lips got very tight. If you know what look I'm talking about, which I'm sure some of you do, then you should be able to picture that image rather well. It was the look of mixed anger and disappointment, that I, their teacher, could in any way shape or form like their supposed enemy. It only lasted a second though.

It was as though they thought they had made me angry or something. I'm not sure what their logic was, but after giving me that horrid look, Emma perked up with a big smile on her face and said, "We like America. America is good."

She gave me the thumbs up to demonstrate how good good was.

Why?

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:31:00 +0000

You are sitting in a blue plastic chair at a desk in a room that you know all too well. On your desk is a pencil with .5 mm lead. It's the kind you hate because it breaks too easily if you press down too hard. Written on the blue plastic neck of the pencil in black ink is your least favorite number in the world. Two. Specifically, #2.

The room is quiet, except for the steady ticking of the clock positioned on the wall behind you. Every now and again there is a nervous roll of a pencil across a desk from someone sitting behind you. You'd roll your pencil too, but you don't want to draw any attention from the woman standing behind the podium at the front of the room. It doesn't even seem like she's even paying attention, but you know that it's all an act. Her eyes are trained to see anything and everything that might be deemed suspicious. Years of practice have taught you to remain still and quiet.

The woman, if you haven't guessed yet, is your teacher and today is test day.

You've known about it for a week now and you studied for it, but your anxiety is still running a little high. Tests, well, they just make you squirm. And you've heard rumors about this test. A friend of a friend of a friend who knew this one person who dated this one person who took this test a few years back said that it completely made him self destruct. With rumors like that floating around, you have all the right to be just a tad bit nervous. It can't be that hard, right? It's just an English exam after all. What is there to be afraid of?

As the clock behind you flips to 9:30 am, the woman behind the desk lays the test face down on your desk. She's gives you that look that says, "If you cheat, I will personally eat your soul." You nod in understanding and flip it over.

Before you is the test that you've been losing sleep over all weekend.
The test is only one page. One line. One question.

The question is . . .

Why?

"You have until the end of class to finish your test. Good luck."

*****
Humor me and answer that question for me.

I gave this question as a extra credit to my students on their test today, and they really did self destruct. They had no idea how to answer it.

And finally, a random picture from my collection. This picture comes from the selection I stole from Tim when we met up in Hong Kong.

Taiwan Folk Village: Picture Mania

noreply@blogger.com (Gabby Girl) — Tue, 29 May 2007 06:36:00 +0000

The following pictures are from our little excursion to the Taiwan Folk Village during our May Holiday. I apologize in advance if they suck. Five minutes after we arrived, my camera decided to collect all the moisture that Xiamen has to offer(which is a a lot) in the very center of my lens. Luckily, Phil had his camera, but then his battery decided to die half way through the day. I don't think God wanted us taking pictures or something, but somehow, we ended up with a few decent photos. Take a gander and enjoy.

Religious figurines chilling on a hill.

This little moth attacked Phil's foot before we headed into the village and wouldn't get off. Phil shook his foot real hard too. So, I coaxed him on to my finger and lead him to safety. Hopefully, he liked the bush I chose for him.

This little guy just doesn't know how to play fetch.

There were countless statues all over the place.

Lantana. It's every where I look in Xiamen. A very pretty flower.

More religious offerings. This would make a super cool bird bath.

Buddha. Enough said.

I've never stood so close to a Tiger before. If you can see through the ring cloud, you should be able to notice the cataract in his left eye. Poor thing. I thought at first that they were just letting him sit there without any chains and that made me super nervous as I took the picture. However, I saw later that there was a very short, older than sin chain that attached his neck to the table - which somehow didn't make me feel any better. I have a feeling he could have easily dragged the table with him as he made the crowd of on-lookers his dinner.

Once again, if you can see through the fog that is my lens, you might be able to tell that this is no ordinary leaf. It's actually a butterfly. We found him in a building called butterfly world. It is the best place to go to get photos of butterflies - if your camera is willing to cooperate. I thought it was pretty cool looking.

If I had been on the other side of the road, this picture would have turned out better. All things considered though, it didn't turn out to shabby.

Lantana over-taking the beast.

Popcorn clouds. We never had this many blue skies in Fuyang. Never.

Most everything in the village was man-made, but it was still impressive.

Everyone thought it was normal for the local Chinese to get a picture with the gigantic Taiwanese statue, but when the laowai decided to do it - everyone had to stop and stare as if I were doing something wrong or exotic.

One of the best pictures to come out of day. No matter where we go in China - there always seems to be stairs in the way of my destination. You would think that I had gotten used to them by now, but no, I still hate them as equally if not more than before I got to China.

Here is that moth chilling on Phil's shoe. I think Phil could have walked all throughout the village and he never would have budged.

Probably the cause of the moisture attacking my lens.

Pretty mountain side.

Actually, I take that back, I'm pretty sure this was the shot that destroyed my camera for the day. If you forgive my finger intruding on the left over there - the picture didn't turn out half bad.

That's the Beach Road and the ocean relaxing in the background.