My China

night markets, my birthday and students

2008-04-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

bubble tea!we dont know if he was more amazed by the puppy or the foreigner

downtown yongzhou
oh benicio

night market with kasey
view from the night market
night market fun!

this guy was too hot for a shirt
teaching the australians how to play beer pong
box head!
my birthday!

night market food
one of my favorite students jeff and his friend
one of my students... a great chinese dancer
watching souja boy
one of my good classes
the smallest beer pong table in the world to join the smallest cups in the world

Little African Dancers

2008-04-20T06:19:00.000-07:00

April 20

Well I was asked to direct an African dance for 28 four and five year olds! At first, the owner of the dance school asked me for a video of one of our African dances from "my mothers shows", but I told her I didn't have one and that they were all in America. So she asked if I could have someone send them here, I told her no because it would cost too much money. So she asked me to make up a dance for a performance they are doing in June. Today was my first day.

I got to the studio at 2pm and didn't leave till 5pm. There were, just as she said, 28 four and five year olds who were so tiny and cute. Luckily, they were the best behaved and most coordinated 4 and 5 year olds I have ever met in my life. They did not misbehave whatsoever. They were all made to stand in rows and perfect rows otherwise they were yelled at by my two assistants. One girl touched the girl in front of her and the teacher smacked her hand and yelled at her in front of the class and the parents who sat in on the class. Well these kids turned out to be better than some of the teenagers I have taught African dance too. They picked up most of the stuff right away, not everything and not all of them. But there were a few girls in the front who were great and looked great doing it even though they were only about 3 feet tall.

At one point I was having the kids do a forward roll and not everyone could do it, so I separated the kids by saying yes or no (because my assistants did not speak English, so we had a very hard time talking and translating) and putting them on one side of the room or the other. I only did this because there were too many kids for this one part so I wanted to divide it into sections with two groups doing two different things. After class the teachers who were with me were trying to tell me something, they were saying it all in Chinese and I didn't understand a word but they were also drawing it and what I got out of it was that the kids who could not do the dance were to be sent home. Their exact words were "yes, no, no-goodbye! go home" I was SHOCKED. That was not my intention when I was separating the kids and I DO NOT want to send a 4 year old home because she can not do one move. How traumatizing! So I'm going to ignore that "translation" and just keep the groups separated giving them moves they can do.

The kids danced for 2 1/2 hours straight! Every time they did something wrong they were yelled at, anytime they talked or got out of line, they were yelled at. Which I guess is why they are such good dancers. Definitely a completely different setting and teaching style than in America.

After 2 1/2 hours of dancing in the heat and humidity because there was no air conditioning or fans, the poor girls were exhausted and sweaty but were still made to stand in straight lines, standing up straight to do their end of class routine.
the girl in the pink stripped long sleeved shirt was really really good at African

one of the youngest and smallest girls in the class, again this was after 2 1/2 hours of dancing in the heat- poor thing

April 21

one of the girls got spanked today during rehearsal because she wasn't standing in line straight. for one of the formations i was trying to get them to do a circle holding the persons hips in front of them, they couldn't do it and were "fooling around" so one of the mothers came out and started yelling at them. she got them to do it right. there is no stepping out of line in this Chinese dance class!

Booze 'n' Beef

2008-04-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to our friend Eugenes new restaurant that he had just opened a few weeks earlier. It was really nice! Not like most of the restaurants in Yongzhou, it was clean and really fancy. He treated us to lots of food and lots of beer. His brother and his brothers family also came along and they had the cutest 16 year old son. His English name was William. He had great English so he obviously didn't go to any of our schools haha. He went to the best school in Yongzhou which is school number 4, Carrie and Jesse's school. His teacher he said was Jesse. Unfortunately, Jesse and Carrie weren't there because they were in America for a wedding. There was also a very cute waiter there, and after a few beers I felt the need to express how cute he was. This kind of backfired and our friend translated everything I said into Chinese for the waiter and included the fact that I wanted to be his gf. This I never said, but I guess in China when you think someone is cute it means you want to date them. haha Turns out the waiter was 20 (so young!) and graduated from my high school, but I don't think could speak a word of English, so instead he went around toasting us and chugging beer with us.

William
amanda and I and my awful new bangs
yummy food! including peiking duck!
our cute waiter!
eugene!
eugene and his brothers family
cool wall art
with Willy!
thats right a chicken head... and i even ate it! go me!
more of the restaurant
with our waiter

After dinner, we went to the night market across the street for some more food! ugggg and some more beer yaya!

On Saturday, we invited some of our Chinese friends out to the night market for some beer. We taught them how to play American drinking games and they taught us some Chinese drinking games. We did this after a dinner of great hot pot and again ate more food at the night market, I've never felt so full in china! John also saw 3 huge rats in the mens bathroom. We saw a nasty spider and puke.
Turns out one of our friends is moving to America to get his PHD in the summer and hes moving to TROY! to go to RPI, he had just found out that day. So hopefully we will be meeting up in the States for some "night markets". We also decided because of that fact we need to teach him and the others how to play beer pong. That way when he goes to American Universities he can fit right in.

cooking schwuar which i cant spell
someone got their finger stuck!
sandy snails from a strangerthe disgusting bathrooms at the night market... but at least from that hole in the wall is a good view of the river! just pop a squat!

yummm night market food! chicken, beef, tofu, vegetables and squid
a seed you are supposed to chew on and it gives you a buzz, it was so gross I couldnt keep it in my mouth for more than 2 seconds
haley- who is in the middle is a chinese english teacher at our school
they didnt know how correct they were... even though its supposed to say please do not bring outside liquor into our establishment

random photos

taking the "taxi" from our school to the bus stop
its a cart on a motorcycle with 3 wheels and costs .5 RMB
awesome new shower, that looks like it just landed here from space. it has a phone, radio, lights, back massager, foot massager, overhead shower and regular shower! however, the first time they set it up they didnt do it right so they had to come back and fix it the next day. then the drain wasnt working so the water wouldnt drain for a couple days, had to come back and fix that TWICE then the hot water stopped working... uggg china is so stressful sometimes! i have had something break every other day and that is NOT an exaggeration. there is always someone in my apartment fixing something. and once one thing is fixed usually something else breaks the next day. probably one of the hardest things to get used to in China.
this modern shower def. looks weird and out of place in my apartment haha apparently they only have these in hotels. only problem is its tiny! Chinaman size! if i was any taller or fatter i wouldnt fit! haha1.eugene showing us how its done in china! hes the fastest chugger ever!
2. Amanda and Eugene eating chicken feet
3. Chinese drinking games at the night market

CHANGSHA

2008-04-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, April 4th was Ching Ming Festival so we all had a holiday. On that day the Chinese go to the graves of their ancestors to clean them and give them gifts.

Since we had a 3 day weekend we went to Changsha, which is the capital of our province. It has 6.13 million people! The busiest street in town, called "Walking Street" was jammed packed, it looked like Times Square on New Years Eve. It was crazy but awesome. Turns out not all cities in China are disgustingly dirty and smelly like mine. This city was clean and smelled good although it was still really polluted. The second we got there you could feel it in your throat. It also had many western things, which is one reason we went! We had pizza and cheese for the first time in a month at Pizza Hut (Pizza Hut was so classy here, not like the crap ones in the states, they were even playing jazz music, oh and the pizza was actually good too), they had McDonalds, Subway, Walmart, Hagan Daz (which i have no idea how to spell), a million shops, Carefoor which sells imported food, and other awesome things that my city does not have. It was about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from my city, on a nice bus with a bathroom and a TV blasting Chinese movies and music.

Chewin on some chicken feet on the busIn the Train Station
We stayed at 3 star hotel which was really nice and we only paid 140 for two nights, which is about 20 bucks! And we each got a gas mask in our room wahooooooo! Instead of having fire alarms you had to call the front desk to alert them there was a fire and then put on your gas mask and RUN! Typical China.

These boys were in high school and had really good English, they helped us find and book the hotel.

View from our floor (14th)
the bus station

those aren't clouds, its pollution
Amanda and I
POSE!
One of the best parts of Changsha was the night life, they had great bars, and dance clubs and other foreigners! But it was very expensive to go out and drink unlike Yongzhou, about 30 for a beer, whereas here we pay about 6.

a great bar, with cute bartenders, a cute DJ, and great music

inside that bar
our cute bartenders
the DJ, he sang along to every song with us
some people we met in the bar bathroom haha
at the bar
at the club, bryce, me, kasey
the chinese men wanted to lift up bryces shirt... not sure why.. . maybe cuz hes a "whitey"
bryce bein a dancin man
ni hao!
bryce you are the man
dancing with the russians
We saw a Chinese Variety show, which was ok. They had some acrobats in it who were amazing! But then there were a lot of skits and singing and when you cant understand them its kind of boring. The only funny thing about it was watching all the Chinese people crack up hysterically. It was also 3 hours long which was wayyyyyyyy to long, we ended up leaving just before it was over.

All in all it was a great weekend and we are defiantly looking forward to going back soon.

selling bunnies, birds and guinea pigs
selling some food from his truck
one of the many parks
this was a famous movie star
yayaya for western food!
in Carrefoor, the grocery store:
hearts
dried chicken
pigs feet
mmmm beer
typical bryce
at the muslim restaurant... sooo good!
amanda and i and the lion
ally shopping
apartments
looks homey doesnt it?
antiques storei love wall hangings

just in case you didnt believe me!
the boy behind the peace sign
antiques market... can you spot the foreigner?
which ones cuter? I'd say its a tie for ugly
MAO!
caitlyn and bryce
the old and the new
at the park
amanda, kasey and john
sleeping in the park
with the cherry blossoms or sakura! just like in japan!
super hero poses!
we swear it'll be the next big fad in china and take over the peace sign
i wish we had these in my city
pointing at some guy who wouldnt stop pointing at us, talking about us, and taking our picture
bryce doing his sexy pose
a pink jacket
yongzhou number 6 middle school ya baby!
and they even had a walmart!
a city of 6.13 million!!!
walking street where a million shops and a million people are
haha calvin klein
bryce fitting in
making cotton candy with a bike-awesome!
our last restaurant in changsha all the way on the left

Benicio!

2008-04-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

My coworker, Kasey, got a new puppy!!! He is the cutest thing ever. Hes like a little fur ball and is about the size and feel of a little stuffed animal. It was a real dodgy sale, we went to a "pet shop" she gave the lady money and the lady just handed her the dog. No papers, no cage, nothing. So we just carried him home.

my awesome students!

2008-03-31T08:18:00.001-07:00

the past two Sundays we have had movie night in my apartment with some of our English Corner kids. The first week we showed a Night at the Museum and on the second night with all the girls we showed Hairspray. They never got to finish Hairspray cuz they had to leave at 5:30 to eat dinner then get to class by 6pm. Yes they have class on the weekends, the only time off they have all week is on Sunday from 12-6. its crazy!!! when the girls left one of the girls from one of my good classes said to us "that was the best day of my life!" oh man i hope she was exaggerating! we also gave them popcorn, which they were sooo confused to what it was and kept telling us how salty it was. we bought them soda but no one wanted it, they wanted either juice or water. crazy high schoolers!During one of the English Corners we had our kids tell stories using flashcards.
The girl in the middle is the one who said movie night was the best night of her life.

Showing us their new english names that we gave them. they were so excited even though they couldnt say them.
peace yo!
my two favorite boys! jeff and spencer. spencer talks a mile a minute and stutters so you cant understand a word the kid says but he is really really smart and good at english.
jeff, kasey, spencer and i
kasey felt the need to name a kid voltron. and since we had to write what the name means cuz thats very important to them she said it meant "builder of ramps"
lol
i named the girl in the middle martha, cuz im an awesome sister like that

random yongzhou

2008-03-31T00:10:00.000-07:00

shopping for wine... bryce being a cat, look he matches his shirt!these kids thought it was hilarious
community dancing on friday night
yongzhou can look pretty at night... on the other side of town, the "nice" side

love the kid in the back

this guy thought we were so entertaining
bryce being a tiger
a chicken and a duck getting a ride on the bus probably off to be someones dinner
downtown

these kids were having a blast
walking down some back streets
crossing the train tracks after the train has gone by
welcome to yongzhou
the duck again
when the lady set these chickens down (there was another one tied to it) they started to run away and she had to chase them up the aisle. awesome

Sally comes to visit!

2008-03-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend (March 23, 2008) sally came to visit. On Friday we went and got our hair cut and washed for 30 yuan. That included 3 head massages, a face massage and an upper body massage, getting our hair washed, cut and then dried. Not bad for $4.25!

Sally getting her hair shampooed without water.

with my hairdresser and new hair cut
yayay for new hair! sally and I
On Saturday we went out to dinner with these people who own an English/dance/tai kwon do school. We got free lunch and were promised a trip to the bath house if we went to their school.

the lunch:

amanda and john

blood duck... the duck meat is cooked in the ducks blood, surprisingly tasty.

sally and I getting ready to try blood duck

pigs gums... not awful, not great

So we went to the school and were put on display in every classroom where the kids asked us some questions and we were instructed to go around and ask very simple English questions. The students were awesome dancers and so flexible. And not just one or two could bend their backs in half, almost all of them could. It was pretty amazing to watch. So I found out they have belly dancing, latin, ballet, yoga and some other dance classes so im going to try and go to take some classes during the week.

the amazing thing wasn't the fact that they could do this but the fact that almost ALL of them could do it.

So I gave the owner my number which so far has been a bad idea. That night he called 3 times and texted me asking what I was doing in the evening, this is after spending the whole afternoon with him. I ignored his calls and texts. The next morning he called 3 times and texted again. So I texted him back and he asked me why I ignored his calls and if I could please tell him. So I told him I was seeing my friend off and was to busy to talk at the moment. So we will see how taking dance classes goes cuz I really don’t want to be harassed everyday and put on display. So after we visited the school we went to these Turkish baths which were quite an experience. We wanted to do the Jacuzzi bath so sally, Amanda and I went into the bath room while jesse, carrie and john got full body massages. So we had to go naked into the room, although you do get a towel. First you showered, then you sat in the sauna while one at a time they took you into another part of the room where you had to leave the towel behind and lay down on a table. Then the lady pours hot water all over you and then starts to scrub you skin. It hurts but it gets all your dead skin off and she shows you how dirty you were before washing you off again. Then she puts lotion all over your body and then you have to go sit in the sauna again. The most awkward part of the whole thing is that random Chinese people who are clothed and not customers just come in and watch you get scrubbed and scraped while your lying naked on a table. So after we were done we were sitting in the sauna and a cockroach crawls out from under the floor boards. Not cool. So we run out and get the lady to tell her and she was like ummm so what they don’t bite get back in the sauna. They were pretty strict about the steps you had to take and how long each one took. Haha. So we got back in the sauna with the cockroach and watched it crawl all over the seats on the other side and just decided we couldn’t take staring at the ugly bug anymore and got out and showered. We never made it into the Jacuzzi which was the whole reason we did it because they weren’t full and they wouldn’t fill them for us. We think it was because there weren’t enough people. So we decided to go get our feet massaged too while we waited for the others. So we chose the cheapest thing on the board not sure what it was exactly. Turns out it was to only clip your toenails. So we got it all sorted out and told them we wanted a foot massage which we got along with an upper body massage. This part was amazing.

john getting his full body massage

getting my foot massage
After the Turkish bath we went to milo coffee which has been the nicest place I have eaten at in china so far. Then we went to the night market where we found a tent and some plastic stools and sat around a table drinking beer and eating noodles and peanuts. A random Chinese guy came up to us and started speaking English so we asked him to join us and he hung out with us all night. His English name was Eugene. Jesse and carrie also invited their Chinese friend to come join. Both were funny guys and a lot of fun to talk to. We stayed there till the place closed not sure how late it was, sometime after midnight. Then got a taxi home.

amanda, sally, carrie, jesse, john, and me

beer and baijio which tastes like gasoline and nailpolish

sally and carrie

our new friend Eugene showing us how to pick up a girl at the bar

All in all a great weekend.

kasey, me and sally

tartswalking around yongzhou near my school

random videos

2008-03-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

the model

2008-03-18T06:26:00.000-07:00

March 18, 2008

This is what exploring will get you.

Well thought I would go exploring today because for the first time in a long time it wasn't raining and for the first time in yongzhou I saw a blue sky! Behind my apartment there is a path that leads down into a building which looks like its going to topple over- what’s new? So I asked a student what was down there, of course he couldn’t tell me in English so instead I followed him down. Turns out it’s a bunch of art classrooms. It’s the kids lunch break and there were a bunch of them down there just drawing. So one student asked me to be a model and then others started to ask. So I told them I would if they let me take their picture. So they got a chair and put me in the middle of the steps and next thing I know about 40 students are surrounding around me drawing me. Pretty uncomfortable, so i'm trying to take pics of them or do something as to not feel weird. So they kept yelling at me to "stop moving". Well the drawings were amazing and one of the kids gave me the picture he drew. It’s a little weird being a “model” but totally worth it.

some of the drawings the students did, pretty dam goodthis is the one he gave me

the kid in the white shirt is the one who gave me his drawing, it doesn't look much like me but its really really good.

the plastic bag

2008-03-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

So we ate at the muslim place again today, my favorite restaurant and kasey had asked if they had this one dish in a small and they didn’t so she said she didn’t want it. But after we finished eating everything, he brought out the dish which is huge! And gave it to us, guess he didn’t understand that we said we didnt want it… oh well… so we asked him if we could take it home and so he takes out three plastic bags and dumps it in there and ties them up and gives it to us. Oh and this wasn’t a hard substance dish… nope it was soup with potatoes and meat… awesome.

my favorite cook making some awesome noodlesour hole in the wall muslim restaurant
yummy- this is the dish he dumped into the plastic bags haha
how they cook all their food which is kept out on the sidewalk
peanut milk... surprisingly delicious

its magic how they make the noodles, have a look:

inside my apartment

2008-03-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

my apartment... although i almost cried when i first saw it, i love it now. its nice and small and i had to get used to a couple things. to take a shower you have to turn on a propane tank and wait for it to heat up. you cant use the tap water so after you wash your dishes in cold water cuz the sink doesn't have hot water you have to put them in an electric dryer to kill the germs. the bathroom sink is very small and is in the kitchen therefore it is also the kitchen sink. only cold water and not really big enough to wash dishes but oh well. ive heard that mice may come out of the pipes when it rains but so far it hasn't happened... knock on wood! the city smells like a porter potty, especially when it rains and therefore when it rains, inside my apt. smells too. good thing air fresheners are so cheap! (about 50 cents!)

my living room/dining room
the toilet or WC as they label it.
the kitchen... my tiny sink... the door is where the shower is.
the tiny kitchen... wont be cooking much in here
the shower
my bedroom and the laundry room

bedroom
laundry room
living room

exploring the back streets of yongzhou, march 08

2008-03-17T00:20:00.001-07:00

on Saturday we decided to explore some back streets in Yongzhou
we walked along the river and got all muddy. after we met john and amanda for hot pot and then went bowling at the only bowling ally in town which is in one of the hotels across the river. the best part of bowling (cuz i hate bowling) was the fact that we could bring in and drink our own wine and beer. they even gave us a wine opener and cups.
outside a huge mall they are in the process of building
at the hot pot restaurant: tiny eggs which are soooo good. kasey cant eat them though cuz she feels like shes eating little robin eggs haha
john bein an awesome bowler... the lady behind the bowling desk even jumped up and clapped when he got a strike.

China Randomness:
After shopping the other day, we get into a cab and the second we start driving the cab driver pulls out his cell phone and calls his friend to tell him he has to foreigners in the back of his car. Hes super excited. That’s the only part of his convo we could understand. Then he continued to drive us home almost killing us in the process which is a normal drive in china where there are no traffic laws or if there are NO ONE obeys them. Instead they beep as much as they can, go on the wrong side of the road, pass people (on the left or right) when others are coming in the opposite lane, and almost hit things. (our driver hit a dog, our taxi driver almost hit a person) oh and they go 80 MPH down little side streets that are only one lane wide. Always an eventful experience when your in a car.a back road fruit market

oh the pollution and the smog... its rainy season now so this is what everyday pretty much looks like
the weird bus
garbage everywhere!

China randomness:
Sunday march 16^th
Went into the shop today and the lady starts telling me something in Chinese, of course I have no idea what she is saying so i take a necklace off the metal thing its hanging on and look at it then go to put it back and touch the metal part its hanging on and get electrocuted! Apparently that’s what she was trying to tell me! Why they have those hooked up like a barbed wire fence I will never know. the tiniest restaurant ever a game to be watched

on our way to downtown

the random pig walking around on our way to the bus stop

the next 3 are pictures taken while waiting for the bus

My Students, Senior 1 and 2

2008-03-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

a student told me today there are 3000 students in my school. not sure how accurate that is but im sure its about right.
lunch time!

the girl in the purple invited me to her toys birthday party she was throwing in her dorm room. she said since its her toys birthday and he is her song it was also her birthday. unfortunately i could not make it because a lunch date.

Some pictures of my students from my Senior one and two classes. Ages 16-18
looking at my pictures from home

adverbs lesson

i thought this was so cool! haha
he usually caught this book...