The Last Days, Gladiator Style

This past, and last, week in Jinan has been spent doing the things I love most here, and, at the same time, doing whatever necessary to avoid beginning packing.

With my close friends, I have eaten one last time at my favorite restaurants. I have made final stops at our favorite DVD shops (adding to an already impressive collection). We've had movie nights, girle sleep overs with my favorite Stephanie, and played basketball in the dark deserted court yard.

Wednesday, two long term laowai (foreigner) fixtures at Aston, Gary and Tom, were granted the opportunity to compete in the Chinese version of the Gladiator TV show. We were all told to meet at Aston at a certain time, and expected to be simply sharing rides to the studio to watch the event.

Arriving at Aston, we found mounds of stuff waiting for us. Aston sweatshirts, huge signs, clappers, pom poms, whistles, and so much more were thrown at us. It was crazy, and so much fun! We headed as a group over to the Shandong Television Studio, where we watched the first event take place over a 2 hour period. 

Tired from the lights and slow moving take on the production, Stephanie and I headed with Josie, a chiense teacher at my Aston school, and her 3 chinese friends to a famous ourdoor chuar place in Jinan.

Here, I informed them that I wanted something so spicy that it would me my cry. And my wish was granted with the 'la hou' mutton - literally, 'burn your throat' spicy meat. Wow, it was great! We had a grea t night laughing with her friends, and practicing our chinese.

Tomorrow is my last full day of work. Though leaning more towards excitement, I still do have mixed emotions about leaving. It's always hard to leave an adventure behind, knowing it will soon fade into mere memories.

Packing will eb left to Sunday morning. I have most of it done, but, unfortunately, my suitcases seem to have shrunk somehow. Hmph. It must be the smog.

AMY: Anitdisestablishmentarianism Meaty Yemen

Having finished exams this past weekend for Sunday classes, this was Parents' Weekend for the Sunday Schedule. Without any real lesson to drill forcefully into their little heads, I had a full hour and a half to fill before meeting the 'rents. On a whim, I assigned what I deemed a simple task to my class of mostly 7 year olds.


Remember those poems you wrote in elementary school, where you write the letters of your name vertically down the paper, and choose a word beginning with each letter that describes yourself, your interests, or your aspirations for the future? I explained this concept of the acronym poem to my students, also having my Chinese teacher explain it in Chinese, and, in addition, making an example of my own name (not the one in the title of this post, unfortunatley), following this by an English and Chinese explanation. I thought the concept easy enough to understand, and, coupled with the drawn out explanation, practically too much so. My students, however, did not share this sentiment; the resulting poems were quite funny. For example:


Run
Angry
Is
Noodles
Yes


My CT (Chinese Teacher) and I laughed at the poems, not to mention the fact that the children thought they had done such a wonderful job on them. Having enjoyed this so much, I tried it againfor my class of mostly 10-year-olds. The results, after additional clarification of the purpose of the poem, were even more hilarious.


Easy
Make machine
Mother
Are you a good girl?


That afternoon, I decided that this activity could not be abandoned. After all, given past evidence, the older the students, coupled with the increasing clarity of the instructions, yielded more bizarre poetic material. And that afternoon, my 13 year olds did not disappoint.


The cat is sheep
Ox is very strong
Mom likes watching T.V.


Knife and Fork
Always happy
Read a newspaper
Eat a cake
Never have one eye.

This coming Saturday is Parent's Weekend again, as well as my last full day of work here at Aston 2 in Jinan. You bet I will have more of these poems to post!

The Harbin Ice Festival: Rated 'Very Cool' by Tourists Everywhere

This past week, I traveled with a group of 6 teachers up, up, up into the northern nether-regions of China. Harbin was a gorgeous town, surprisingly so; we had heard mediocre reviews. Being so close to Russia, the architecture and aura of the place were distinctly different from other Chinese towns that I have visited. It was very eastern European, very clean, and very, very cold.

After wrapping ourselves in several layers of clothing, we ventured out into the cold. Wandering around the town, we toured the cathedral and a few museums. Stephanie, George, and I took a bus to visit a germ warfare museum, used by the Japanese during WWII to conduct horrifying experiments on the Chinese. It was both horrifying and fascinating at the same time.

The Ice Festival, the main attraction of this excursion, was simply glorious. Though the entrance price was a steep, it was worth every penny. There were free rides, ice slides, and so much more in this frozen wonderland - not to mention the beautiful ice sculptures that draw tourists from around the world. Stephanie and I brought out our new Communist Hats just for the occasion.

The following day, our troop took a shoddy bus ride through a wildlife preserve, home of the Siberian Tigers. We drove through huge enclosures filled with these animals. They were not afraid to get up close to our van, either. Two large tigers escaped into the middle ground that separated two caged areas, running around the small lot and coming with in inches of our van. The driver, obviously a seasoned veteran of tiger escapes, turned the van into a mechanical-sheep dog of sorts, guiding the fugitives back into their cells, and granting us another chance at life.

In another part of the park, we even got to feed the tigers! It was just as frightening and intense as the pictures look.

Not only did we see the tigers, but also White Siberian Tigers...

          ...and Jaguars...

... and  Leopards...

 ...and White Lions...

...and, you'll never guess, LIGERS! Cool!

That night, we indulged our childhood fantasies at the Disney Ice Festival. It was quite magical, to be cliche. 

Thursday night, we headed to Beijing for a night our before our return to Jinan. Due to unexpectedly heavy traffic, not to mention a taxi driver who spontaneously broke into song and forgot where we were going several times, Stephanie and I missed our train home. No matter, we spent the day carousing about in Beijing before catching an afternoon train home. I simply love that girl.

Going back to work that weekend wasn't easy, but the knowing that it was my last full weekend of work took away some of the sting. I leave China in one week! 

Where has the time gone?!

Lazy Bones: Recapping the week of 2-19

I sincerely apologize, both to dedicated readers (of whom I know there are a hefty amount) and to myself, for being hands down lazy in the blog department. In my defense, however, I have been quite the busy little bee. 

The week of 2/19 was one dedicated to exploring the parts of Jinan that had been neglected these long months. There are actually a few tourist attractions in the city; a few friends and I decided it was about time that we experienced them for ourselves. 

Thousand Buddha Mountain (Qian Fo Shan) is a famous mountain in Jinan. It is an easy climb, and offers a nice (though smoggy) view of the city. Andy, George, Rob, Stephanie, and I had a great day together here.

We found a bug vendor, and decided to eat what we thought were silk worms. 

After seeing a facebook photo of us eating these insects, a chinese teacher commented:

"They were cicada pupas.It is said that they are very nutritious.One cicada pupa equals one egg.I used to seek them under the trees when I was very young and my mom'd deep fry them for me. Not bad."

We took the slide down- a speedy, exhilirating experience!

The Botannical Gardens was another attraction we checked off our lists this week. Carnival rides, row boats, ice cream, and relaxing in a rare green patch in Jinan: who could ask for more on this sunny day in China?