Conclusion

Well that essentially wraps up my crazy year teaching English in China. I did make it to Bangkok after Ko Phi Phi, but there is not really anything worth writing about that happened there. I was mostly waiting for my flight back to China. Also, I won’t bore you with the details of what happened after I returned to Shijiazhuang and then to Beijing. You should just know that my last few days in China were filled with goodbyes, good friends, and lots and lots of beer.
Writing this three months after returning from China, it seems more like a dream than it ever did. Being one of the last remaining Drake graduates in China and waiting for my plane back to America in the Beijing airport; I couldn’t help but think the entire previous year had been a dream. China and my experiences there just seem like an outrageously alien world now.
However, the memories still float and swirl around in my mind: the nervousness and anxiety I had the first week of classes, line dancing to “Achey Breaky Heart” in front of hundreds of Chinese on the National Holiday, playing guitar and singing while dressed as a cowboy at Christmas dinners at fancy hotels, hiking the Great Wall and zip lining down from it over a gorge, riding horses on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, motorbiking along the beaches of Thailand at sunset-these are memories that I’m going to hold on to for a long time.
I still remember looking out the window on one of my first mornings in China and seeing the street full of Chinese people on bikes, buses, taxis, and cars going every which way. At that moment I realized, “I’m in China” which was not so much a statement as it was a realization.

Traveling after Teaching (Yangshuo)

Unfortunately, I have to begin this entry with one of the stupidest things I think I have ever done. After I got out of Guilin’s airport I took a taxi to the bus station (Yangshuo is an hour south of Guilin by bus). As soon as I got to the bus station, I paid the taxi cab driver and got on a bus to Yangshuo with my backpack. As soon as I stepped on the bus, I yelled a series of obscenities-I had just realized that I left my suitcase in the trunk of the taxi. A man that seemed to be a manager of the buses told me to come with him. We went to a taxi cab company and they said there was nothing they could do about it. We went to talk to some other taxi cab drivers and they gave us a number. We called the number but it didn’t seem like it helped much. Finally we figured that since it was an airport taxi that someone would be in charge of them at the airport. The man told me we had to go back to the airport to see if we could talk to someone. After the 40 minutes it took to get back to the airport, we found the woman in charge of the drivers. In true Chinese fashion, as soon as we began to present my predicament to the woman, a crowd of taxi cab drivers gathered around, each wanting to put in their two cents, each sounding as though they were the authority on the matter. At point, while trying to explain something to the man, I had to turn around to shush the taxi cab drivers to make myself even audible to the man.
(sidenote: this is a common characteristic among Chinese people-any public situation that seems even slightly out of the ordinary is met with a crowd of people. Furthermore, any such situation that necessitates some sort of assistance or information on the part of the second party, can easily be met with not one, but many other parties. I’ll present you with a few examples. Just today while I was eating lunch, a woman dramatically dropped her tray of food just as she was walking away from the counter. Now, normally, one would expect people to turn around to see what the commotion was about. However, people did not just turn around from their seats. People actually got up OUT OF their seats to stand around the mess…just looking at it. A few days ago at the airport, a woman was throwing a tantrum and seemed to be having some sort of mental breakdown. Two men were trying to get her under control but to no avail as she continued to scream, throw her cell phone against the ground, and kick her legs. A crowd of at least fifty gathered around to stare. I’ve even seen people watch and stare at men working on the lightpoles.)
The woman made a call to her taxi cab drivers. Amazingly, a minute later one called back and said he had it. We got his phone number and taxi number. We had to take the airport shuttle back, which was another 40 minutes. Before the man called the taxi cab driver, he sat me down and basically said that he wouldn’t call the driver unless I paid him 100 yuan. I was like, “What…the…hell.” I just spent 85 on a taxi cab ride to the bus station, and then 80 for our tickets to the airport and back. I tried to reason with him…partially because I knew that he didn’t make 100 yuan in maybe even a few days worth of work, but he would not listen or bargain with me. Then we had to take a bus to the place where we were going to meet the driver. After I got my luggage, he had the gall to ask me to call him if I was going to stay in Guilin longer. “Yea, you just screwed me out of 100 yuan, I think I can really trust you to show me a good time in Guilin, you jerk.” What’s funny is that when I came back to Guilin, I saw him leading some other foreigner around. I was really tempted to come up to him and tell the foreigner to watch out for him.
After visiting Yangshuo, it very well may be my favorite city in China. It is in south central China and has become a popular destination for backpackers in the last few years or so. Yangshuo has one of the most recognizable natural landscapes that China has to offer. Thin lime stone mountains, covered in vegetation, jut up jaggedly from the ground. Although it is fairly touristy (as any place of interest is in China), it was still a pretty small town/city and there was so much to do there. I didn’t arrive until later in the afternoon because of my ordeal. As soon as I stepped off the bus in Yangshuo, I was greeted by a young man who came up to me and said, “Do you need hostel? Hostel?” I said, “No, I’ve already booked with Monkey Jane’s Hostel.” The man replied, “No! Monkey Jane’s will f--- your money! They will f--- your money!” I said, “I don’t care, Monkey Jane’s was recommended to me by many people and I intend to keep my reservation.” Then he said, “OK…well I can take you there.” So I got on the back of his motorbike and he dropped me off not far away. On the way, he told me, “How about you come to my hostel today and then if you like, you stay.” I said, “Nope!” That guy charged me twenty for which should have been a five yuan ride. After that, he pointed me in the wrong direction to Monkey Jane’s. Yea, see if I stay at your hostel, you jerk off.
I was first told about Monkey Jane’s after some teachers from my city went there over the Spring Festival holiday. They said it was some of the most fun they ever had staying at a hostel. Monkey Jane is owned by the woman of its namesake. She might be the most untraditional Chinese woman I have ever met…which actually goes for every woman who worked at Monkey Jane’s, but Monkey Jane in particular. She would swear at guests, get drunk with her guests, and get into all sorts of trouble. Her rooftop bar is infamous for its beer pong. Monkey Jane guests can win free t-shirts by beating her at beer pong. Every single night of the four nights in Yangshuo, I stayed on her rooftop bar. Great fun had by all!
Two of the most interesting people I met at Monkey Jane’s were two guys who said they were working in Bali, Indonesia. Both were in their mid to late twenties and said they had planned on going to a few different countries, spending some time working at each one, but they have stayed in Bali for the last 9 months. They have the ultimate bachelor’s pad and are getting into some real business there.
But back to Yangshuo itself. The first full day I had, I went biking with my roommate, an American named Richard, and a guy I met at the bar the night before, Daniel, from Costa Rica. Richard didn’t end up striking the right chord with me by the end of the day, and you’ll see why, but Daniel was one of the nicest, most laid back people I have ever met. We decided that a good route would be to go to a town north of Yangshuo called Xing Ping, because apparently they had a good weekend market. Also, we would have the option of taking a raft down the river back to Yangshuo. As we made our way to Xing Ping, we stopped at a run down convenience store and noodle place to avoid the few minutes of torrential rainfall. I don’t know why, but it was a fairly striking moment being on the side of this road with some poorer Chinese people, eating some tasty noodles while the rain was coming down. You just had to be there, I suppose.
Afterwards we continued our trek. After another 45 minutes or so we got to Xing Ping. It was relatively touristy, but the main streets were definitely alive with the market. However, merchants and people trying to get us to do boat tours on the river constantly hounded us. One woman would not leave us alone. I told her that we didn’t want anything and to go away, but she persisted. What makes me even angrier in these situations is when the other person smiles, as if they think you are joking…which is what this woman was doing (again, I think this is a Chinese characteristic…where as we do it to intentionally piss someone off more, they do it to say, “Hey, nothing is wrong.” But nevertheless, I always interpret it in the former). I finally got the woman to go away.
After leaving Xing Ping, we began to follow a trail on the map. The trail was along the river and we had to cross by ferry at one point. Just beautiful scenery, as you can see from the pictures.
Finally at one point, we realized that we were on a walking trail and it was impossible to go any further on our bikes so we had to find an alternate route. This alternate route snaked all around and on top of the mountains…and it was a dirt and gravel road, which made it particularly to pedal on. We stopped at some points just to take in everything around us. Finally we got on an actual paved bike trail (yes!) and it was basically smooth sailing from there (the last 15 km being almost entirely downhill. We stopped at a beekeeper’s tent to see if they had any water for us. They did, but then Richard asked if they had tea, and they did. Then, Richard asked if they had honey, and of course they had loads of it. Note that all this time Richard is speaking English and is making no effort in trying to use me to translate (which may not have helped THAT much) or to use body language to get his point across. He was also doing it before at the noodle place. Clearly, they were poor and assumedly not well educated. I said, “They don’t understand English, man,” but he continued. Finally he asked if they had any bread, which I thought got past a certain point and got into the realm of taking advantage of their already generous hospitality. So finally I lit into him a little bit, but he didn’t see what the big deal was. Later I talked to Daniel and he said, “I think you and I were on the same page…but Richard…”
In any case, we had pure honey and it was amazing.
By the time we got back, the sun had already set. We estimated that we had road our bikes somewhere between 60 and 70 km. Needless to say, we were all exhausted.
The next day, I decided to go out to a cave, which is a popular destination spot for tourists. I decided to bike out to the cave and it only took about half an hour or so. I had never really gone spelunking (cave exploring) before, so it was a good experience. At one point, there was a mud bath that had really thick mud that we bathed ourselves in. Of course, our great tour guide didn’t tell us anything about the geological history of the formations, but she expressed concern in showing us formations that looked like recognizable objects or people. “Look, it’s Santa Claus!” “It’s Buddha! See the belly!” “Take a picture of this! It’s a toothbrush!” It reminded me of my tour guide in Pingyao…”Look, a chair!” In any case, the cave was really cool. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera because I knew it could have easily gotten broken, muddy, or wet. After we left the cave, we hiked around the mountain and jumped in a pool at the entrance of the cave to get cleaned up.
My final day I decided to try something else I had never done before---rock climbing! It was hard as hell! I went with a guy from Jerusalem named Ayer, who was my roommate after Richard left. I was able to do about three and a half climbs, but by then, my arms were spaghetti. I literally had trouble tying my shoes without my arms shaking. It was fun though. The hardest part, along with constantly using your upper body strength, was positioning your body in such a way was sometimes the only way to get past a point. The only way to know how to position your body in a certain way at a given point was from experience.
The morning after that I left Yangshuo to spend the night in Guilin for my flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Luckily, my trip back to Guilin and the Guilin airport was completely uneventful.

Traveling after Teaching (Ko Phi Phi)

On the boat ride I sat down next to a tall guy who looked about my age. After a few minutes we started talking. His name was Ben and he was from Leeds, England. Ben apparently hadn’t booked anywhere to stay, so after we got off the boat we just headed to the place that I reserved and there was plenty of room open. Ben and I got situated, grabbed some beers and went down to the beach. Ben has to be one of the most outgoing people I’ve ever met. He talked my ear off. He had just spent a year backpacking and working around Australia and told me all about it. He was planning on going to Canada in the fall to do the same. There’s one thing he told me that I don’t think I’ll ever forget and that’s when he asked me, “You know what I think life is all about, mate? Just having a good f***ing laugh.” For as short of a time that I was around Ben, there are not many people who were more influential on my life than he was. There are certainly flaws in his life motto, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a lot of merit to it. Clearly, some people take life too seriously…Ben is just not one of them.
He’s also not the first person I’ve talked to who has been backpacking around Australia. My friend Nate, who was a student at my school, had just finished doing it before he came to China. Everyone I’ve talked to about it has had great experiences…hmm (the gears are turning…).
To continue the theme of my after teaching travels of “firsts”, I snorkeled for the first time while I was on Ko Phi Phi. They took us out one what seemed to be a souped up fishing boat. We went to nearby islands and saw coral reefs, extraordinarily colored fish, and other forms of ocean life. At one point, a South African on my boat exclaimed, “You know, I’ve been to the Barrier Reef in Australia, but the snorkeling here takes the cake.” I felt pretty good about my first snorkeling experience getting that much credit from someone who was obviously more experienced than I was.
Besides snorkeling, we didn’t do much else besides lounge on the beach, eat, and party. Ko Phi Phi is essentially a party island. People come there to enjoy their world famous beaches during the days and to party during the nights. While we were there, there was something called a Full Moon Party. As one may infer, there is a Full Moon Party every time there is a full moon. On these nights the bars are packed and they all have absurd drink specials. Luckily, there was a Full Moon Party while we were there and we headed towards the open-air clubs on the beaches. I can’t remember the last time I danced that much or with that much vigor. The world might have well have been ending. Before all the dancing, however, there were fire breathers and throwers, a flaming jump rope, and a flaming limbo…basically lots of fire. You can see the pictures off to the side that they don’t take their fire lightly in Thailand.
Other than that, a big attraction on Ko Phi Phi was the bar called Reggae Bar. Patrons had the option of fighting REAL Thai kick boxers for the chance of getting free drinks (you just had to fight one to get a drink, not win). Also, drunk friends would fight each other for free drinks, so it was always entertaining. There were some really good matches!
Last but not least, I had the absolute best Pad Thai that I have ever had in my life…and it was from the cheapest restaurant on the island!

Traveling after Teaching (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

I’ll first start by saying that I wish I had been able to spend some more time in Malaysia because I was limited just to Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur was ultimately just a big city, but you could spend a day just people watching. Malay, Indonesian, Chinese, Indian, Western-this was definitely one of the most ethnically diverse places I have ever been to. Frankly speaking though, there just wasn’t a lot to do there but party.
As we were walking up to the door of our hostel, my friend, Nate (a Shijiazhuang American student at my school) was in front and I just heard him exclaim, “Noooo way!” I tried to see what he saw inside. From behind, I recognized a familiar head of shaggy, brown hair. We walked through the door and Nate exclaimed again, “Noooo way! What the f--- are YOU doing here?!” Sure enough, the shaggy head of hair turned around and revealed itself to be none other than our Scottish friend, Mike, from Shijiazhuang. Just as surprised as we were, we had to get over the initial shock of seeing each other in the same city in the same hostel when we had parted our separate ways almost a month before. If anyone else has experienced something like this, you know how crazy it can be.
While we were there we smoked a lot of sheesha (flavored tobacco) and drank a lot of mango shakes that were excellent. We went out a couple of nights and one night this guy who was only to us as “Captain L.A.” joined us rather spontaneously. He just sat down next to us outside of our hostel. Now this guy seemed a bit full of himself, but I wasn’t going to pass judgment on him so quickly. However, after hearing him speak at length, I realized he was just some jerk from L.A., hence the title that we bequeathed unto him. The breaking point is when we were all ordering rounds of beers at a club when Captain L.A. ordered a drink that was far more expensive than the beers we had been ordering were…and it wasn’t even his round. So Nate’s friend Sam called it out on him and he compensated him (by buying Sam a similarly priced drink). All the while, our sweet French girl friend was uncomfortably trying to enjoy herself (I can’t remember her name, but she was too much of a sweetheart to be hanging around the likes of Captain L.A….and probably us as well).
Despite what seemed to be the shortcomings of not only Captain L.A., but every person from L.A. that I met abroad, we ended up having a good time in Kuala Lumpur by just walking around and seeing some of the sites. Before becoming autonomous, Malaysia had come under the rule of the British empire for a while (and maybe some others as well), so the mix of architecture was fairly interesting. Again, though, there was not much to do in Kuala Lumpur and I really wish I had had the chance to go elsewhere in Malaysia.
Sadly, the next day Nate and Sam decided to take off for another part of Malaysia while Mike and I decided to go on a Firefly trip. This Firefly trip took us about two hours outside of Kuala Lumpur to a river. We ate a seafood (riverfood?) riverside dinner at sunset and then took a boat tour down a river to see the many thousands of fireflies that lit up the night sky.
That night Mike and I went out on the town and it was the last time I was to see that crazy Scot. The next morning, I woke him up before I had to catch my flight. He turned to me, hair disheveled as if he was doing his best impersonation of a mad scientist, eyes blurry, voice bruised and cracked, and said, “It’s been emotional,” and quickly returned to his drunken slumber.

Traveling after Teaching (Krabi, Thailand)

My first stop in Thailand was flying into Krabi. Hilariously enough, when I walked out of the airport, there were three stands all situated right next to each other. One was for an airport shuttle and the other were for private cars or taxis. They were each telling me to come to their stand with equal fervor. After looking over the prices, I decided to go with the airport shuttle. In Krabi, I stayed right next to Aonang Beach. I decided to explore a bit. I went to the edge of the beach where there was a huge cliff. Monkeys were hanging out and people were trying to feed them. However, the monkeys kept on getting chased away by four dogs. One of the monkeys was big enough to actually stand up to one of the dogs and they exchanged advances. There was a trail around the cliff that led to a private beach on the other side. The pictures I took are off to the side.
The next day I made my way to the beach almost as soon as I woke up. Unfortunately, it started to pour right as I got to the beach and I took shelter in a nearby restaurant. After it cleared up, I went in and enjoyed the warm, blue waters. After a little while I felt a sharp sting on my knee. I looked at it and it was turning red. I was pretty sure I got stung or bitten by something but I wasn’t sure what. I got out and went up to a group of Thai masseuses that were taking a break. Most Thai people in touristy areas can speak a little English, so I said to them, “I think I got stung by something, is anything in the water poisonous?” They didn’t look too alarmed, but one of them said, “Jellyfish.” Another woman said, “Come with me” and brought me just a few meters away. She sat me down, uprooted these plants, crushed them between her hands, and then rubbed them on the sting for about five to ten minutes. Afterwards, she said, “Now if you get stung again, you know where to go!” I noticed the wound itself had practically disappeared and about half an hour later the stinging feeling went away. After that, I went back into the ocean, but was more than just a little cautious of wading too far out.
That night I went to a bar called Hippies Bar who touted free drinks from 9:00 p.m.-11:00 or something like that. I’m sure it would have been crowded during high season, but it being low season there was barely anyone there. I stayed there just long enough to hear the cover band finish up their set.
The next day I rented a motorbike and biked around the area for a while. I guess I had never really gone motorbiking before either…this was definitely a trip of firsts. Riding the motorbike next to the ocean side was a great feeling. Even though I had paid the insurance, the thought of my crashing the bike and having to pay the exorbitant amount of money asked by the company was a bit disconcerting. I didn’t bike too far but made it to a couple other beaches, which was nice.
That night, I met an Austrian guy, Martin, who was traveling back to Thailand with his Thai girlfriend. He brought me to his girlfriend’s cousin’s family’s bar, which was along a strip of bars. As we walked into the bar, he pointed at one of the girls that was working and said, “Dis ees my friend, don’t even theenk about touching heem!” His accent was pretty entertaining because he talked about his family a lot and would say, with heavy emphasis, “My Fadda…” or “My Mudda…” We just BSed for a few hours but it was nice talking to him. It was also crazy just sitting there while people watching.
The next morning I road the motorbike a bit more and then left on a boat to the island of Ko Phi Phi, where I met one of the most eccentric people I have ever met...

Qingdao and soccer updates

Well, in true China fashion, the server I use for my blog, www.blogger.com, has been blocked as well as other frequently used sites such as Twitter and Flickr. So now I'm back in the States and recollecting as much as I can from the last few months. Here goes nothing!

Since I wrote last, I have traveled to two more totally sweet places in China. The one I will relay to you now is from Qingdao. Spellbinding stories abound...

The place we traveled to in the middle of May was called Qingdao which is famously known as the "Beer Capital of China", producing China's most well known beer, Tsing Tao, as well as another beer, Lao Shan. Qingdao is also particularly interesting because of its German influence (it was colonized by Germany many moons ago). After some false starts, I was finally able to round up a few people to come with me. James, an awkward and awkwardly tall Scottish bloke, Amit, and Willie. Now for some reason, there are only a few ways to get from Shijiazhuang to Qingdao directly. One is by a bus that leaves at 8:30 and 11:30 in the morning, the other is by a train that leaves at 10:00 p.m. As a result of conflicting class schedules, our only option was the night train. Now, before going to buy the tickets I knew that the train did not have sleeping cars (cars that have beds) but rather just had seats. This made James a little hesitant to come, but everyone was still in. Even when I went to buy the tickets two or three days earlier, they told me they were sold out of seats. Dumbstruck, I bought four standing-only tickets. The train takes about 8 hours so I knew at least James would not be happy. I actually thought about not telling them that I could only get standing tickets until we met at the bar right before leaving to get on the train, but I thought better of it. I sent out a text to all three of the other adventurers with the best reply being James' which simply read, "haha, good joke." Willie and Amit were down (even with Amit's still healing broken toe) and with a little coaxing James was aboard again. Come Thursday night we meet at the bar and have a few beers to prep us for what could be a really really crappy night. When we arrived at the train station we bought two small, Chinese, fold out seats and two 9 packs of big beers and had a couple before it was time to get on our train. Amazingly enough, as we got on the train and people settled down, we noticed that there were a few seats open and we were all able to take one. However we all were sitting in different places. A female college student we befriended sat next to me as she translated between an older man and me. Of course he asked the normal train of questions that I get, "How do you like China?", "What do Americans think of China?", "What do you think of your new president?". After a while, I got tired of the interrogation and fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up bright and early at around 7 or so...and guess what, still on the train! With some initial trouble, we got to our hostel. After being settled in and taking some showers, we decided it was high time to grab some lunch (with some beer, of course!) and then mosey on down to the Tsing Tao brewery.

The brewery was what one would expect: information on the founding and history of the brewery, the basic ingredients of beer, how it is brewed, etc. Halfway through the tour we got to a "resting point" where we could try "raw beer", right before it goes through its last process of being brewed. It tasted a bit different, kind of liken cold, stale beer, but it was alright. While enjoying our fine brew, I noticed a commotion to our left and several westerners (British I was assuming) were taking pictures of something. I looked again and saw that a Chinese toddler was drinking some beer. This girl could not have been any older than four years old and her parents were watching her drink beer while being photographed by a gaggle of the Commonwealth. After a while, the girl realized she was the undeniable center of attention and started to cry as her father took her away. "Man," I thought to myself, "that would never fly in the States."

At the end of the tour, the hallway opened up to a huge beer hall where we got a free pitcher of beer. Following the pitcher we downed several cheap pints. Behind me, I noticed a girl, who could not have been more than 12 years old drinking some beer. She did not have much left in her glass, so I looked directly at her, held up my glass, and firmly said, "Ganbei!" 'Ganbei', which literally translates to "dry glass" is the word you say to signify that you and your drinking partner(s) will chug the entire glass. She did and I did, and her parents immediately wanted pictures of her with me.

After this we ate dinner at a Tex-Mex restaurant and then went out clubbing. The cabby totally screwed us on the fare to the Tex-Mex restaurant. Although it was rush hour, it took 20-30 minutes to get there...but later we realized that it was about a five minute ride from our hostel. He definitely went the long way.

The next day we decided to go to the beach which was a five minute walk from our hostel. The weather was really the best, so we just walked along the beach and made a poor excuse for a sand castle. We also visited one of the highest points in the city that gave us a panoramic view of the city. It was a great view! Later on we went to a German restaurant and I ordered a huge plate of sausages with beer! It was to die for.

That was about the extent of our Qingdao trip, but we all agreed that it was one of the funnest times we had traveling in China. However, Qingdao really deserved a four or five day stay rather than just a weekend. It ended up being one of my favorite cities in China.



Other updates:

- My football (soccer) team played a match two Fridays ago. The team we played was a rematch against the only team that we have ever lost against. The other team was playing cheap the entire time, especially one or two players. One older, larger gentleman pulled on jerseys, kicked people when they were down, and pushed. After one penalty shot and a couple excellent plays by our forwards, we had a comfortable lead of 3-1. At the end, of the game, one our midfielders was guarding the big man on the other team and our midfielder simply kicked the ball out of bounds. The big man literally turned around and kicked our midfielder square in the shin, making no attempt at even going for the ball. Our midfielder, Patrick, put his hands up as if to say that he was innocent and had not done anything wrong before the big man started yelling at him and pushed him. At this point, both teams swarmed the situation and we had to hold Patrick back from beating the crap out of the big guy. Patrick is shorter than I am, but considering his muscle mass, he could've probably taken the bigger guy. Anyway, the game unfortunately ended on this sour note with a lot of yelling and obscene hand gestures from our side. What p'd us off even more was that the manager of the field (the guy we had to pay to use the field), who also seemed to be doubling as the other team's coach came over to us and said that the big guy was going for the ball and that we should not play so hard when we have a lead. He said this with a huge grin on his face p'd me/us off even more (side note: one thing I think I have figured out is that Chinese people will smile when there is a potentially volatile situation to show that nothing is amiss whereas in the West we take that as a real jackass thing to do). If I spoke Chinese a whole lot better than I do now, I would have told them that 1. We all saw what happened clear as day and 2. Next time, when we have a lead, we'll just walk off the field and let the other team knock a few goals in. One of the other guys on our team, an African said, "If I would've been in Patrick's place, I would have killed that man."

- After losing what we thought would be our last soccer match, we decided that we had to play-and win-one last soccer match. So Hugo set up a match with a student team from one of the universities in Shijiazhuang. We played the game and were giving them quite a thrashing (the score being 9-1 towards the end of the game). However, towards the end of the game, the ball was out of play for some reason and so I started walking back towards our goal when I heard a huge commotion behind me. I looked behind me and some spectator from the sidelines had run onto the field (while the game is still on, mind you), had tackled a player on the opposing team and started punching him mercilessly in the face. Everyone on my team just began to feel dumbfounded when ANOTHER spectator from the sidelines ran with his shirt off, screaming something in Chinese, with what appeared to be a knife in his hand (I couldn't tell for sure, but he definitely had a shiny metal object in his hand that he was holding like a knife). He ran after some other guy on the opposing team and a big brawl ensued for about 10 minutes. At this point, our team just walked off the field and called it a day, still very confused about what just happened. We tried asking around to see what they were fighting about but no one had any clue. We assumed it was something personal. After the game, a friend of mine who was unable to play that day called me and asked me how the game went. I told the story about the fight and he replied, "Sometimes it's a very very bad idea to lose."

Pingyao/Taiyuan Trip and Various Things

Sorry for the big gap since I last posted, but not too much that has been that noteworthy has been happening lately. I'm this is mostly due to the fact that the environment that surrounds me has become quite normal to me. I'm sure once I come back to the States, I'll think to myself, "Wait, where are all the babies pooping and peeing on the street?" or "Why can't I drink alcohol in this taxi?"

As my time here in China winds down, I feel as though I'm ready to complete this experience and move on to the next step. However, I have about two months left and I'm definitely going to keep on living it up.

- We formed a foreigners' soccer team and we usually have at least one match every weekend. There is no league, per se, but our captain is well connected enough that he can arrange matches against teams made up of students, co-workers, etc. Our team is made up of Africans, Canadians, Koreans, Indians, Scottish, and English among others. Tyler, our field captain (as opposed to Hugo, our managerial captain), is incredibly competitive and likes to make a competition out of most things...not to mention something he has a lot of passion for (soccer). In fact, he is the one that regularly won all those drinking competitions at Seven Club. The first few times we played he would yell at people and be a general jerk. We nicknamed him Tyrant Tyler. Finally Francis had enough of it and ripped into him. He still yells a little bit, but most of it is positive encouragement. In any case, it's been lots of fun so far playing a game that I haven't really played since I was 8.

- I played my first game of cricket! It was a pick-up game but it was good fun. It's not nearly as confusing as I thought it would be, but it's like the imperialistic, aristocratic version of baseball (at least on some levels).

- A couple weekends ago, my school took us on a trip to a mountain outside of Taiyuan and then to Pingyao, which is one of China's only remaining ancient cities (meaning that it hasn't completely modernized and still has some structures from hundreds of years ago). We had one guide for both places and he was absolutely awful. It wasn't that his English was terrible (but it was bad enough that the Chinese people that work in my foreign affairs office were making fun of him), but it was that he didn't explain ANYTHING to us. To me, the job of a tour guide is to explain the cultural/political/religious/etc. significance of a whatever it is that one is taking a tour of. The entire tour, we had to ask our guide to explain most everything. Oh! But he did explain some things: "This is a tree trunk." or "This is a wooden table with wooden chairs." (I am 100% serious). One pretty odd experience we had during this trip occurred when we were on top of the city wall in Pingyao. Within the city wall is a prison and we could see the prisoners waving to us from their barred windows. So we waved back. We probably gave them the most amusement they had all day long.

The pictures above are all from the trip.

- Considering the recent weather we've been having (80s mostly), our classrooms can get fairly toasty without any air conditioning. So I come in with shorts, birkenstock sandals, and a t-shirt already sweating while some of my students are wearing two or three layers of clothes. I turn on the fans and my students begin to whine (Chinese girls universally have this annoying whine that makes them sound like they are spoiled 7 year olds). They say, "We are going to catch colds!" Then I usually go on a rant for a few minutes about how no one in the history of the world has ever caught a cold from a fan.

Despite the advent of modern medicine in China, there is still a firm belief in some traditional, pseudo-scientific fact views on sickness and health. One of them is that you can catch a cold as a direct result of being exposed to the cold weather (even just wind) for an extended amount of time. This, of course, is not true. However, one is infinitely more likely to catch a cold from lack of sleep (proven), lack of vitamin D (proven), or change in behaviors such as a result of winter weather like spending more time inside and being in closer proximity to others (proven).

I asked one of my students about this and they said there is an old saying in Chinese that basically translates to "Don't take off your winter clothes too soon in the spring and don't put your winter clothes on too soon in the fall"...didn't really answer my question...but OK.

In any case I am going to do a mini-presentation on "How One Actually Catches the Cold" in my classes this week. Terri thinks I'm mean for doing it, and I may be a jerk, but it must be done! I will be merely providing them with scientifically proven facts concerning the common cold...with a fair bit of biting sarcasm thrown into the mix.

- This weekend I am FINALLY going to Qingdao, which is the beer capital of China (producers of TsingTao beer, one of the worst beers I've ever had in America is considered the best beer in China! Who would've known!) I'm going with Amit and this Scottish guy named James "Jimmy". Good stories shall abound...I think we are going to go for a hostel that is right on the beach! Woo!

- Also I am visiting my Norwegian friends, Bjorn and Hanne, in Hainan (the Hawaii of China) at the end of May. Speaking of, I don't think I mentioned this but at their going away party back in the beginning of April, Bjorn, me and a few others went to a restaurant at 4 or so in the morning. Basically we made a mess of things and started using our chopsticks as drumsticks and the various dishes and glasses as percussive instruments. I can't imagine what kind of racket we were making, but one of the waiters commented that it was "very good." Every once in a while during our jam, Bjorn would yell, "YI PING PIJIU" which means "one bottle of beer." After a while of repeating this phrase, a waiter came in, which stopped all the music for a moment, and said, "Yi ping pijiu ma?" Which essentially means "You want a beer?" I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard, but I think you kind of had to be there.

- I am beginning to plan my travels for after I am done teaching...top of the list is Thailand! We'll see how my finances are looking at that time, but I wouldn't mind just chilling three weeks in Thailand.