Goodbye Alice

Alice finished her time in Xiamen a few days ago and headed back up north. It was kind of sad that her flight was in the middle of the day on Saturday... so neither me or Chris could take her to the airport... but she knew that when she booked the tickets.

She was homesick a lot of the time she was in Xiamen... but also had a lot of fun here with us. I currently have no plans of going back up to northern China... but I think we will probably run into her again somewhere... someday.

I am also leaving pretty soon. I just bought my ticket for Thailand. I head there on Sept 27th.... just about a month away. Still don't have a solid plan for where I will go after Thailand... but eee.. I have a few months to work on that.

Out of our little trio that came to Xiamen.. That will leave just Chris here. He will probably live here for a few more years and then he is debating moving to Thailand.... maybe I'll still be around.. hehe.

Fun at the Modern Toilet

I went to a fun restaurant called the Modern Toilet (we call it the poopoo restaurant). Its a little expensive but damn funny. Everything here is bathroom themed in some way... seats are toilet seats... soup bowls are toilets..... most of the dishes come out on either sinks or squater toilets. And there is poopoo EVERYWHERE.
It disturbed Carey a lot at first... especially the big pile of poop in the middle of the table.. but she eventually even ate some of the poop shaped mound of chocolate ice-cream  :)

I kind of wish i would have taken more pictures.....and maybe ordered some more dishes (especially some soup)

Uploading videos to Youku tutorial

This is a tutorial on how to upload videos to the Chinese version of youtube... called youku. If you don't have an account check out the tutorial on how to sign up for one Signing up for youku

If you have just finished signing up, you will get this page..... just hit 上传 in the upper right corner to start uploading.

ALT:  If you are coming back to youku.com in a new session you will get this page. You should already be logged in so just hit 上传 to start.

 At this point just hit the big upload button, a window will pop up for you to select what video to upload. Choose your video and it will start uploading.

Progress bar will start moving (hopfully, might be slow) Start filling out the information. For Catagory, i usually just pick "original".
I'm not sure how to use the Sync feature, but I think it will help by uploading it to other chinese websites like toudou.com

Just hit finish and your video will be upload. It might take a few hours before the video actually shows up though. This is because it has to be previewed to make sure it doesn't say anything bad about the chinese gov. Then it will appear.

Signing up for Youku tutorial

Using a browser that will auto-translate a website for you (like chrome) can save you a lot of trouble, but for anyone not using one... here is a quick tutorial.


First go to www.youku.com
At the top right of the screen you will see 注册. Click this to sign up for an account.

Fill out your standard registration form. and hit "Register"

Second part of registration has location, these are only locations in china..... so just choose one at random. Hit finish.

After hitting finish a few little internal windows will come up, you can just close them. Now you can start uploading!

Post on how to upload videos is coming next!

Beach party, fire hooping, paddle boarding Oh My

Its been quite an exciting few days. Even with having to work a full day saturday and a full day Sunday we of course went to the first beach party of the year (starts at like 8pm Saturday and goes till like 6 in the morning on Sunday).
I was set up to do some fire hooping at the party.... no pay...but free drinks all night (joy.. lot of good that did me). The party was HUGE!!! at least a thousand people were there.. easy... and there was always a DJ playing and some vendors selling food and of course a bar.
We took Alice and a few teachers with us (Rain, Eky, and Sarah)... the more outgoing teachers.... but even they seemed a little overwhelmed (and probably pretty tired).
I pulled out my LED hoop and danced with it for awhile in the early parts of the party... and ran into a guy that does poi and a few people that wanted to learn to hoop and sadly gave them my number with two numbers reversed (didn't have my phone on me).
Then about midnight it was time to pull out the fire... we looked around for a good place... i dunked my head in the ocean to get my hair and beard all wet... then started setting up my stuff... Sarah helped me as fire safety (always good to train a new one of those in every city) and we had a little show right by the water... the people kinda scattered on the lower part of the beach came down to watch... and it was great..... but i needed to make one more up front where most people were.
So we waited a few minutes.. fueled up and headed into the main crowd in front of the stage. Ran into chris and a bunch of other people i knew there who quickly cleared a circle for me and lit me up. It was AMAZING... i had to be a little careful of people in some section of the circle moving closer... but for the most part people stayed far enough away for my comfort..and their faces...
For this performance the speakers were RIGHT behind me and BLASTING.... add that to the excitement of the crowd... i was amazingly pumped by the time the fire went out and probably could have stayed there dancing all night. Luckily my teachers were there and tired and wanted to go home.. so i left at about 1am... a still somewhat decent time.

Then on Monday we hit another part of the beach (daytime this time).. and did some paddle boarding... really strange but fun... you get on a really big thick surfboard type thing.... with a paddle.... and you paddle yourself out into the water a bit.. then stand up.. and keep paddling around and try not to fall.. its a little tough but pretty fun. Not a sport i would invest any money in.. but fun for a random day on the beach.. and it was pretty hot out.. so everytime you messed up and hit the water... it felt great!

I'm sure there are many more adventures to come this summer!

Boat Party

Holidays are always a good time... and sense most people are off work... some of the foreigners in the area decided to throw a boat party..........fantastic idea! And because its a holiday i was actually able to attend...where as these events are usually held on weekends when I work (like every beach party that will happen this year)

We started out early this morning (as in everyone was supposed to meet by 11:30am, but that was too early for some) and then headed out around 12. We were supposed to ride out to some little island and park there and party on the beach for awhile. But the boat driver wouldn't go there for some reason..... and just decided to park next to some really big boat and hook us up to it for awhile.

This actually worked out pretty well, there weren't to many people on the boat to make it crowded.. but there were enough to have lots people to talk to (maybe about 30 or so people). We hired a guy to BBQ for us on the boat, so we had constant food. Chris and a few other talented people provided random music with a few drums and guitars. And of course it didn't take long for people to start jumping in the water.

The current was a little strong.. so we had to stay pretty much attached to ropes to keep close to the boat.. and the water was a little cold.. but wonderful.  It was nice and sunny for most of the day.. but not to hot. A lot of people got pretty burned... but i guess i did a good job with the sunscreen or something... i luckily didn't get burned but i also didn't get any darker...

We stayed out there till about 6pm.. and then some of us went out for Thai dinner. All in all a pretty amazing day. Pictures will be on facebook soon. I sadly forgot my camera (i'm really bad about that). But plenty of people had a camera.
I decided waiting for the pictures is a bad idea... because if i do that i will never make the post.

Rafting in China

I went rafting today about an hour outside of Xiamen. It was actually pretty nice.

We took a bus out there and then paid for the rafting at a big building where we were able to change clothes and put all our stuff in lockers. Then we got on another small bus that took us to the drop off point. There they gave us all helmets and life jackets and did a brief explanation of how to sit in the boat and use the "paddle". I am glad I have done this before because I couldn't understand anything he was saying.. which is weird.. i usually at least catch half of stuff.

5 of us went... and these were all two person rafts.. so I ended up with a random Chinese guy. Hebe and Daisy  got one together and then Alice and Libby were in one together.

It was a pretty nice run.... they had it set up like a little course... blocking off different sections with some nicely lined up rocks with a pipe through them.. .. and other parts were like little tunnels (with no ceilings) they just had a lot of the river blocked off and forced it down between two concrete walls so that you got to fly down it really fast... and then other parts were very call and you just kinda sat there and enjoyed the peacefulness for awhile.

Paddling was rather difficult at first.. but I got used to it... because we didn't exactly get a paddle.... we just got a bamboo stick.... which works..... but not all that well... its better for just pushing yourself off or rocks.

it took a little over two hours to make it down the river... Alice and Libby got sunburned... but my tan didn't even get any darker... hehe...

sadly i have no pictures.... i didn't take a camera... and ya.. mines not exactly water proof anyways

My vacation home

It was a good trip back home... being here for a month was nice... possibly a little long... and possibly too short.

I did a lot of visiting and more visiting and yes more visiting...

but i also did a lot of biking...... most parts of columbia are definitely bikable... as long as you have a little bit of time and some good leg muscles ..... and might even be easier if you only had one testicle.... but i'm not willing to test that theory!

Also did some skydiving with Kalayna and Michelle.....

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzgwMTU2MTI0.html

and sailed in most of the Easter Regatta.....

Its been a lot of fun... but now its time to go back and continue teaching!

Headed home!

I'm a little late on posting this... but i'm headed home next week..... YAY.... a month at home.. and then back to China for about 6 months.

Pictures from vacation

Posting picture in blogger is slow and a little annoying... so they are all on facebook..... the folders are public so even if you don't have a facebook account you can look at them.

This are the Gulangyu Island pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100604495802487.2666548.12634980&type=1

And Shanghai Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100604481765617.2666546.12634980&type=1

Alice really likes to have her picture taken.... so she pops in pretty much all of them.

First week of Cam's visit.

Sunday Night:

-Cam's flight is an hour late.

-We meet up with Alice and have a very late (9:30) dinner.

Monday:

-Gym.

-Quick Burger King lunch.

-Go to Zhong Shan Road for some shopping.

-Run into random Australian guy on the street and start talking, invite him to 1801 bar that night.

-Have dinner near a few of my teachers, but its the shy teachers so very little conversation.

-Teach one class.

-Go to Rain's house and meet up with a bunch of teachers.

-Head to 1801 bar.

-The bar wants us to spend at least 500 yuan to get a table, but we don't really plan on drinking that much.

-Meet up with the random Australian surfer guy, his friend already got a bottle of whiskey, so they have a table. Join him. (he was there with 2 guys, me and cam walked in with 6 girls)

-We dance the night away, and Alice gets a crush on the Australian surfer that leaves two days later.

- 2am leave the club for some food, then head home.

Tuesday:

-Gym

-Lunch with teachers.

-Do hour and a half of teacher training (we just played assassin)

- Cam went to play basketball, I went home to sleep.

- at night see a the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

Wednesday:

- Stupid work meeting. 4 hours of trying to figure out what the boss was saying in Chinese (I can have a conversation, but a business meeting.. thats totally different)

- Trip to Gulangyu island. Take a million pictures for Alice and a few for Cam.

- Got a massage.

- Met back up with Rain and Eky and went to a KTV till way to early in the morning.

Thursday:

-Woke up late

-Went to lunch with Chris.

- Cam went to play basketball, I took Alice to the bus station.

- Got our plane tickets to shanghai with David's help.

- Waited in line for awhile at the train station and got all our train tickets back from shanghai.

- Met up with Rebecca for dinner and then hit a few small bars, met up with more people along the way.

- Again went to 1801, but only stayed about an hour and went home.

Friday:

- woke up a little late, and took a taxi to the other side of the island (Really should have used the BRT)

- Got a boat over to Jinmen Island (island of Taiwan)

- On the boat talked to a bunch of people, one was an Australian girl that we eventually found out was only 16... oops....o well her dad was pretty interesting to talk to as well.

- Ate some good Taiwan beef noodles.

- Met 3 American girls in 7/11 , talked briefly

- Ran into the American girls again as we were buying our boat tickets to go home.

- Talked to them for awhile on the boat, they all work for Disney English.

- Went to meet up with the Couch Surfing group for dinner (one of the American girls joined us)

- There were 30+ people there.

- Met a couple from Florida that had a really cool girl from Slovakia staying on their couch.

- Hit a small bar after dinner, we played some fooseball with the American girl and Slovakian girl.

- Met a Chinese girl that is from the south but grew up in the north. So me, cam, slovakian girl, and chinese girl all just switched to chinese for about an hour. It was kinda refreshing, i don't do that often anymore.

- Left most of the people at the bar and went again to 1801 with the Florida couple, Slovakian girl, American girl, Chinese girl, and who other girls (still not sure who that are)

- Danced the night away.

- Went to Haiwan park for some BBQ (basically food on sticks cooked on a grill)

- exchanged a lot of phone number and emails and went home.

Saturday:

-Cam and Chris went to the gym, i stayed at home and played video games.

- Rebecca came back with them and we left for the hotsprings.

- spents the whole day at the hotsprings... just soaking in random flavored tubs. (place was like a resort... it was pretty awesome)

- Came back and got a late dinner with Alice (she came home from Libby's parents house).

- Went out to SoulBar..... free drinks (wasn't drinking).. and the music sucked... we left

- Went to Louis One club.... music was pretty good, not to crowded.

-Danced the night away (little bit of hoop dancing) and went home.

Sunday:

-Played video games,

- Lunch with Alice.

- More video games and packing

- Leave for shanghai at 7

Pictures coming soon!

Christmas with my teachers

I didn't bring my camera.. so there arn't many pictures... but these are from Niki's phone.
I ordered a turkey and stuff to go with it from a local restaurant that does foreign food... and this was a one day special.... . they only had turkey on Christmas Eve.

This was the first time most of the teachers had turkey. And we had a nice little lunch at school.. it was fun.

Sign Language

This will be a short post... mostly just a video. Libby started to teach us how to sing a song in sign language the other day. When she got up and showed us it was really cool and i'm glad someone recorded it... its really pretty.

Edit: ok... i spent a few hours learning to actually use the video editing tools i have.. and have fixed the bad video.... mostly... there are random spots were she jumps or just disappears for awhile because... well the camera didn't record anything to go in there... so its missing. Her actions at least fit the music now though.