Vacation Beach Trip part 1

Chris and I started our summer holiday on August second. The first day was just getting shit done and kinda relaxing after the month of doing a lot of over time classes, we also spent some time trying to figure out where we were actually going to go for vacation. We new we wanted to go to a beach.. and the original idea was to go to Dalian... but right now it is very polluted because of and oil spill and fire. So we decided on Weihai... which is on a peninsula a few hours south of Dailian.

China is kinda retarded in how it does its holidays.... right now... EVERYONE is on vacation... they have two sets of vacation in the year.. winter right after spring festival.. and then summer at the beginning or end of August. So... all forms of transportation are pretty crowded and buying tickets can be tough sometimes... so i got Alice from ReachHigh to go with me to get the train tickets.... and of course they were all sold out until the 12th.... so we changed routes a bit...

Tuesday morning at 7:30.... Train .... Songyuan to Changchun. 2.5 hours.
Tuesday night at 10:20..... Sleeper train... Changchun to Dalian. 8.5 hours.

These were the tickets Aliced helped me get... not bad.. it got us to Dalian... and then from Dalian we can take an 8 hour boat ride to Weihai.... the only problem.. gotta buy the tickets when we get to Dalian.... but I actually was able to handle that part pretty well. Also when we got to Dalian we bought our return tickets home from Dalian to Songyuan for the 13th.

Sleeper Train.

Not really that much to say about the sleeper train. We made sure to get bottom bunk... so that we can actPost Optionsually sit down when not wanting to sleep... middle and top bunk don't have enough room to sit in the bunk. We got on the train found our bunk.. asked a random person what time we would get to Dalian... then pretty much passed out... it had been a pretty long day of wondering around Changchun with our bags.

The Boat


When we got to Dalian at about 7 in the morning we took a taxi to the boat station and bought tickets to Weihai.... for a boat that left at 8:30 that same morning... grabbed some quick breakfast and a few snacks and were on the boat. We bought 4th class tickets... but the boat wasn't very crowded... so it seemed like they moved everyone into 2nd and 3rd class.. and had 4th and 5th class closed off... we got "seats" when we got on the boat... we ended up in a room with 4 old ladies... which wasn't to bad.. they slept pretty much the whole time (so did chris)(each room had 6 beds)... and i spent most of my time outside watching the water.... I love being on boats...... the boat ride was pretty nice and a lot of fun.

While I was sitting outside one of the workers came up and sat next to me for awhile.... he was like a manager or something... he we pretty good at keeping the conversation decently simple... he introduced me to another one of the workers that was standing near kinda trying to listen but she was pretty shy... he getting her to introduce herself... it was pretty funny. The guy went back inside at one point.. but obviously not far...because she was facing inside I think talking to him... when I heard my name... I turned around and looked at her and she looked at me and ran inside. So for the next like 2 hours while I was wondering around the boat.... I would randomly here her call my name... and then she would disappear into some random part of the boat..... it was weird.

By about 1pm.... all the people that worked on the boat (even the person that was selling snacks behind the counter) were gone.... just disappeared.... I guess it was rest time. Then when we got close to land... they all showed back up again and helped everyone get off the boat and stuff. It was a really nice boat ride... and I got to read a lot.

Next post:
At Weihai

Post that need to be made:
The Bike Adventure with Alice
The Rock Show/My first performance in China
My Reach High Students

Yay Stuff!!

So its been REALLY busy lately, we have all been working a good bit of overtime..... but that will all slow down very soon and only a week and a half until my summer vacation... will post about that when I figure out what I am doing.

I decided to buy a fish tank a few weeks ago. I got a couple of frogs and a few fish... I am now missing a fish....... I guess a frog ate one.... o well... survival of the fittest :)

We have been talking about doing some sort of bike trip a lot recently.... so today I finally decided it was time to get a bike. I spent a little over $35 on it, I could have gotten a much cheaper one.... but I wanted to make sure it was at least decent quality. I rode it around for awhile today... its nice.... it definitely makes traveling around the city a lot easier.... though I have to be really careful if I go near some intersections..... people drive CRAZY here...

I still need to get a little light for it... if I ever end up riding it after dark. Its a pretty bike right now... Sadly... I am working on taking any of the stickers and things off of it that make it look new.. and probably going to cover it in some mud or something so that no one steals it.

Tomorrow I will probably do some biking around Songyuan with one of the Reach High teachers. Should be fun... I think we are going to cross the bridge and explore some areas I haven't really seen yet.

OMG its LiLi!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

We completely forgot about it.... until Chris saw Google's thing change for it. So all 5 of the americans in songyuan got together... we decided to grab some KFC and a few fireworks and head to the park.

We thought it would be easy to get fireworks.. but as with most things in songyuan... all the places selling fire works close up at 6 and it was like 7:30.... so we wondered around for a little bit asking random shops if they had any.. and at some point a random guy out for a jog decided he knew where some were and decided to lead us around. Another guy from one of the shops we asked in chased us down and started to help as well.. they eventually led us into the night market and then told us to wait for a minute and one of them ran off. He came back a few minutes later saying that he had called the guy that owned one of the shops by the night market and he was going to come back and open up the shop for us.

As we hurry towards the guys shop I hear "Jefu!" and some girl slaps my arm. I look at her for a second... am like... holy crap that voice is familiar.... and I am thinking.... i think its lili... I quickly check her hair and the red streaks are gone... she isn't wearing the spike earrings either... but I am pretty sure its her... I totally can't think of how to respond to her at all in Chinese beside just saying hello.. and Natasia kinda pushes me forward and is like "say bye to the girl... we are going" so I kinda wave and try to catch up with everyone... who hadn't gone far... and the shop was really close.

So the guy totally wasn't there yet to open the shop(at this point I had time to fully figure it out and knew for sure it was LiLi).... I told Natasia that that was LiLi as I was looking around to see how far she had gotten... I still wanted to go talk to her. She was still really close... they had gone down a side street that doesn't go anywhere.. so they were back almost right next to us.. but still a decent amount of people between us.........so.... of course I whip out the LED hoop and put on a quick show.. and it took no time to build a nice crowd... including LiLi. I was able to go talk to her for a little bit.. basically just asked her where she was working...and how she was doing... I was only able to understand a little bit.. but seemed like she was doing well. I was still having a bit of trouble putting together anything good in Chinese... but o well.. I hadn't really prepared any sentences in my head for a situation like that... I guess I need to.

Anyways.... we got our fireworks and went to the park. It was a lot of fun... then we decided to go to a KTV to sing some English songs. We tried 1978... but they don't have the KTV part of the bar anymore.. which kinda sucks...but I put on a little hooping show there... and everyone else got up and danced at one point.. so it was good. Then we finally went to another KTV that has a lot of songs in English and had a pretty good time. It was a nice little celebrations.

One night at Tanbo

One hot and raining night I decided to take a walk.... and ended up passing Tanbo. Some of the staff were outside under the sign (where its dry)... so I stopped and talked to them for a bit. The restaurant was pretty much empty so I hung out for awhlie (no one comes out in the rain). I hung out for a little while and walked Xu Hui home... and then went back to Tanbo... because at this point there were no customers there and I was having fun hanging out. I actually didn't even order anything. When I got back the manager looked slightly unhappy and she was writing out a list. She didn't really mind me watching her write it because she knew I couldn't read it. She looked like she was preparing to do something she didn't really want to do... so I figured this was a list of stuff that the employees had done wrong or something.

A little later the manager had taken Liu Huan into one of the private rooms and all you could hear out of that room was the manager yelling. I couldn't understand any of it. Lin Lin sat down on the steps next to the door to that room and listened... she looked very sad listening. She has that look of a child sitting on the steps listening to her parents scold a sister... or listening to her parents fight. It was very interesting to watch... at one point we could hear that Liu Huan was crying. Then we heard the chairs move and LinLin jumped up and went across the restaurant so that it didn't look like she was listening. I went to the bar and started talking to Hai Lun. Soon Lin Lin came running and said something to Hai Lun and then ran into the waitress area. Hai Lun put down the mop and hurried over to the private room as Lin Lin went running back by with a cup of water.

I stayed outside the room, but when I got over there I could see the manager laying on the floor.... my first thought was that Liu Huan had hit or something, but no... she had over heated or hyperventilated or something from yelling so much. They turned on the A/C in that room and started fanning her and trying to get her to drink some water. Soon Lin Lin picked her up (the male water was in there... but Lin Lin really took charge) and carried her over to the owners office and put her down on the bed in there. They found some sort of medicine in the office and gave it to her... I have no clue what it was. I continued to just stand a little ways away (out of the way) and watch. Everyone pretty much went and started finishing up what they had been doing... except for Lin Lin who stayed there to take care of the manager. She soon was back on her feet and went back out and finished closing out the register and was like.. ok its time to go home... they closed 10 minutes early.

As soon as they started shutting things down... I went outside to wait... it was still raining a bit.. but not hard. I was expecting them to grab umbrellas from Tanbo (they have a bunch for them to use) but they didn't. The manager walked out first and two of the other staff locked up the door. I put up my umbrella and headed towards the manager.. and as soon as I started walking Lin Lin grabbed my arm with the umbrella and pushed me faster towards the manager. So I walked them home keeping the manager dry.... usually when I walk one of them home I try to have some conversation..... but this was a very silent walk back. They live only 2 buildings down from me... so its a convenient walk.

There are a few things that just felt so strange about the night when you think about it. Pretty much all of the female employees live together in one 2 bedroom apt... and pretty much all the of the male employees live together in another 2 bedroom apt. So when the manager has to scold one of the employees.... she then has to go home and sleep in the same room with them. So they work together all day and then go home and live together.... I mean talk about really having to put up with who you work with.... and take a very interesting way of managing I am sure. You wonder does the manager still try to hold authority at the dorm.......

The other interesting thing. With being an outsider here... and though they pretty much accept me as a friend... the best thing I could do when she passed out... was to just stay out of the way. It would take to long for them to communicate anything to me...and for them to understand any suggestion I give them. It was definitely a weird feeling to just know I couldn't do anything but watch... for one... I still don't fully know what happened.... I can just kinda guess from what I saw.....

Event in the park

I decided to walk home from one of the branch schools yesterday and walked past a park that I haven't really spent much time in, when I noticed all the balloons and shit meaning that something is happening...... I decided to take a look.

I saw a nice crowd of people around a stage.. and then some people wearing what looked like newspaper prom dresses....not sure what that was for. They had bunch of instruments on stage, that I can't remember the name of but I know they sound really pretty.... so I decided to stick around for a bit and watch.

Then there were random people singing and some pretty interesting dances... I recorded a little bit of some of them. As it got dark it got really hard to make the camera focus. Also.... i know the videos are shaky.... but I don't have a tripod and I am standing in the middle of a crowd. In one of the videos you will notice when someone decides its time to shove his way by me and then try to stand in front of me... the camera just goes WAY off to the side.

Teaching in the summer in China

So... I look a the weather forecast and am like "oo... its hotter in SC than here... so it shouldn't be to bad (lately been a little over 90)" Somewhat ok thinking..... I seem to handle the heat a lot better than the people that are from Songyuan. But summers here are a bit different in the fact that most places don't have A/C.

My apt not having A/C kind of sucks..... I am really only here at night though.. and I have a little fan I put by my bed.. so not to bad most of the time. Most big restaurants and big store shave some form of A/C but its usually not turned up very high... but it helps a little.

The classrooms that I teach in..........have no A/C (except the ones with no windows). So you have 20kids and 2 teachers in a room with 1 or 2 windows and 1-3 fans........ when you do 7 classes in a day like this... holy shit you are beat by the end. No only are you up there running around and playing games with kids... but its freaking hot and you are a puddle of sweat by the end of your first class. The new school for adults has A/C ... which is nice... so I am always happy to get a class there right now.

Our summer holiday is coming up in mid August..... and I found out the reason for this holiday.... they find what is supposed to be the 2 hottest weeks of the year... and take those off... because to many kids will be sick from the heat to show up to class anyways.... or parents will complain that it is to hot to have class.

So... as I was walking home from class the other night I noticed a lot of stuff happening in a parks.... so I went to check it out... and it ended up being a nice like 2 hour show up people singing and dancing.... I took some videos and pictures.

Next post: Event in the park

Chris's blog

Check out Chris's blog for other updates on stuff happening in Songyuan......I am in some of the updates!

http://choosemyownadventure.posterous.com/