Christmas and More!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! (Shengdan Kuaile and Xinnian Kuaile!!)

Late I am sure, but it's never too late to celebrate Christmas!

Our dream of a white Christmas didn't come true, but we came close. Below freezing weather all week! We did hear that many folks back in Tuolumne County got their Christmas wish though, and Dodge is open. Congratulations….just save some powder for us please! Since we don't have the option of snowboarding over here we decided to pick up a new winter sport; ice-snowdriving. It's a fascinating and heart pounding extreme sport that's apparently quite popular in China. We discovered this sport while taking our hour long commute from Dalian to Lushun. It's a beautiful winding drive in the country, over the river, through the woods, to you know where. But lately it's been a little more….interesting. The morning of our first snow in Dalian we hopped into the backseat of our personal cab at 7am and took our usual route towards lovely Lushun. We assumed our driver had driven in the snow before, (stupid) since it is not too unusual for it to snow here. We also assumed other drivers had driven in the snow before (stupider). Basically, the ice and snow covered road turned into a giant pinball machine of cars, trucks, pedestrians, etc. as we swerved and slid on our way….without chains towards school. No other car or truck (out of the 5 million on the road) had chains either. It reminded us of us those idiots that pass us by on the way to Dodge while we put on our chains….only to see them a few miles up the road crashed into a snow embankment.

Anyway, as we got to the top of a small mountain and started heading down we realized we were in trouble. As soon as we began to slide down the road the driver instinctively slammed the brakes on. When he realized this wasn't working he pulled the e-break. By this time we were picking up speed and there were no guard rails between us and, well, certain death. I began to run through my mind what exactly we would do when we inevitably careened over the cliff a few meters away. One hand clenched the door handle, the other my wife. Had our adventures in China seriously come to this?? Diving out of a moving vehicle onto an icy road to survive?

Well, you can stop holding your breath. We survived! But don't let our parents read this. Somehow our driver alternated between the e-break, foot break, and gas with such precision that we avoided the cliff and made it "safely" to school.

In other news, we made it to Beijing to do a little sightseeing a few weeks ago. We saw the Olympic Bird's Nest and reenacted Usain Bolt's chest-thumping finish line crossing. Then we took a look at the Water Cube where Michael Phelps claimed his eight gold medals. But the highlight of Beijing was definitely the Forbidden City. And after eight hours of walking around we realized why it is called a CITY! It's gigantic; truly a remarkable place with incredible history and extraordinary craftsmanship.

Here are a few fun facts for you:

- It covers 180 acres (7,747,200 square feet) and has 9,999 rooms (for good luck)

-It holds the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures and palace structures in the world

-It's over 600 years old and housed 24 emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties

-The last emperor, Emperor Puyi, lived in the city until 1924

Strolling down streets and alleyways that used to be reserved solely for emperors was quite an experience. The Forbidden City is a must see if you ever make your way out to China. Speaking of Forbidden City's, the city Lushun where we teach three days a week is often referred to as "Dalian's Forbidden City"; as most of it is technically off-limits to foreigners. But it's not emperors that give this city its "forbidden" title; it's the naval base housing "state-of-the-art naval equipment….including the latest submarines, destroyers, escort vessels, minesweepers, minelayers, and submarine-chasers." Yikes. This would have been good information to know the first time went there to teach and my wife went for a walk while I was in class. Two policemen pulled over and demanded she give her passport……as it was clear she was a spy. Luckily our Chinese friend intervened and disaster was avoided. Our 007 status is safe, for now. (Google Lvshunkou District, Lushun, or Lvshun for more info on this area of China). As far as Beijing goes, we will be returning next week to see the Great Wall, Summer Palace and more, so stay tuned!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Greetings and Happy Belated Thanksgiving! It’s never too late to give thanks. We have a lot to be thankful for over here, including enjoying our own version of Thanksgiving. It was a bit different without an oven, turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, yams, my mom’s homemade rolls, and I’m going to stop because I’m salivating all over my computer. It was also different being away from our family (a first for both of us), but we did our best to make up for it. We invited over our American friend Luke and his Chinese host family along with our Canadian friend Chelsea. Roast duck (which we purchased off the street) was substituted for turkey, my wife made amazing mashed potatoes, Chelsea brought stuffing shipped from Canada, our housemates made gravy, and our Chinese friends brought the champagne. Overall we had a delicious meal, but we plan on being home for next Thanksgiving!

Finding certain foods over here can be a task, and we’ve searched high and low for such items as maple syrup, limes, real “American” popcorn, tortillas (or any Mexican food for that matter), and other various foods. There is a large Costco-like store here called Metro which we stumbled across and it was like discovering gold. All of the above items were there(except limes), a little expensive, but well worth it for us foreigners starving for a taste of home. Real Chinese food is great, but saying “anyone up for Chinese?” for every meal can get a little old. When we need some good old American cuisine there’s always McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, and a few decent Western Style restaurants. All of them are pretty good, and I must say a Big Mac can taste like the best burger you’ve ever had after a month of Chinese food.

Although China has been westernizing in recent years, the country and people are still adjusting. We are constantly reminded of this by what we call the “movie star affect.” It’s an interesting experience to be in a city of 6 million people and still get stares from like you were a movie star (or an alien). Most of the younger crowd doesn’t do it as much, as they’ve been exposed to more Western films, but they still want to take pictures of you, with you, near you, whenever they can. To demonstrate how far this “movie star affect” goes I will tell you about our BIG performance here. A few weeks after we arrived in China we were told by our Chinese co-workers that we would be singing at the school’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.

“Singing?!”

Yes.

“Singing what!?”

A Chinese song. You don’t know it yet.

“Of course we don’t.” (it ended up being the Beijing Olympics theme song- “Beijing Huan Ying Ni-Beijing Welcomes you)

A few rehearsals later and we were live, spotlights and all, singing in Chinese, in front of 5,000 people. Crazy! That’s China. We are celebrities on campus.

Speaking of Beijing. We are excited about our upcoming trip. We will finally get to check off some of the big sights in China: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, and the Great Wall. We have technically already seen the Great Wall, but it was a small section in a city called Dandong on the North Korean/China border. We did a weekend trip there and it was quite a sight to gaze across the Yalu River and into North Korea- one of the “Axis’s of Evil!!” The contrast between China and N.K. was stark. Multi-storied buildings, highways, streetlights, restaurants, and all the elements of a modern city covered the Chinese landscape of Dandong. North Korea had a few small buildings, some farmland, the evil eye of Sauron (just kidding), and…surprisingly…a Ferris Wheel. This was fascinating to me. In a country known for being horrendously oppressed and poor there was this vacant Ferris Wheel. It was as if Kim Jong II (N.K.’s leader) was trying to say to the rest of the world, “hey, look at us!! We have so much fun over here in North Korea!! We have a Ferris Wheel! Look!”

The Great Wall there was ‘great,’ but we’re looking forward to seeing a bigger section in Beijing. We will definitely let you know how that trip goes. Thanks for reading.

Phrase of the Day: A Chinese saying- “yuanmu qiuyu”- which means- “It’s like climbing a tree to catch a fish”- basically, “a complete waste of time.”