A gnat keeps flying by my ear when I'm trying to sleep!

New crazy things I've eaten in China:
Cow stomach lining (tripe) - sort of really gross. It's really chewy so you are trying to eat it for about five minutes and the entire time you're thinking "this was the actual stomach of a cow", not cool
Pig's blood in block form - not bad. It comes in bricks sort of like tofu. Actually it is very similar to soft tofu. The grossest part was that I was at a hot pot place when I had it so you had to dip it into the boiling broth first. When we did that, blood leaked out and turned the pot red for a second.

Some observations:
The Chinese think we are as crazy as we think they are about the whole toilet situation. Marie and I went into the bathroom at a more Westernized mall one day and there was a line. We could see ahead that a few of the stalls were still available but no one was going in them so we assumed they were out of order. When we got closer Marie asked the lady in front of us if we were right and they lady spurted out some Chinese and made a circle motion with her hands. Marie looked into the stall and started laughing. The woman had been saying that there was a Western toilet in there and that she didn't want to use it. All the women in the line were refusing to use the Western toilets and preferred to wait rather than use one.

The first day I didn't have my camera on me I missed a great China picture. Andrew and I were walking around his neighborhood. In China they still use the wooden stick method a lot to carry heavy loads - attach two even loaded things to each side of a stick and then put the stick across your shoulders or over one shoulder. Well we came across a man with his stick and two heavy loads - but instead of food or tools or anything else, he had cages full of pets that he was just walking around the neighborhood selling. There were bunnies, hamsters, small birds, pretty much any small animal you'd want. A bunch of women had crowded around him it seemed looking for a pet to take home. And no...these animals were not dinner, they were pets.

Fun word I learned - niu zai ku - which means jeans but the actual translation is cowboy pants




All around town are these blue and white small easy-build apartment buildings. They are the construction workers living spaces and since all of Shenzhen is under construction we've got a lot. This is the nicer version of worker living spaces, for a lot of them they get little shacks put together by pieces of metal.


Since being in China I do not think I have bought a single article of clothing in an actual store. Across Shenzhen there are street stalls and the such selling anything you would ever need. Sometimes it's literally just a person with a hanging rack standing on the side of a busy street. Most of the times if I see one of these I'll stop and glance through seeing if I can find anything for 30 kuai or so (about 5 dollars) that would help my wardrobe out. Unfortunately most of the items aren't the best quality so I am afraid of putting them in the washer. As some of you might know, I am not very good at being domestic and I procrastinate. The pile of stuff needing hand washing kept growing. So I was very proud of myself this evening because I did a whole load of laundry by hand. I even went out and bought a special bar of soap to accomplish the task.


Cliff gave me the idea to play the question game in class. You ask every student to write down a couple questions and put them all in a bag. Then you go around the room and pick a student. The student gets to choose either to pull out a question and ask you or have you pull out a question and ask them. The catch is you need to screen them a bit before you start asking, I am dealing with high school students so some were not the most appropriate questions...But there were still some great ones and these were some of my favorites that I received. (click on the picture to make it bigger)


I was cleaning out my bookshelf and came across this. We all got certificates at a large banquet in Beijing for completing our TEFL training.


Oh Chinglish :)


Harry Potter!!!! I was so happy to find out that HP7 was a world premier and even in China it opened on November 19th. I of course sent out an email to everyone in the program asking who would like to join me for the great event. Eleven of us headed to the Chinese theater on Friday night and had a great time watching the film on the big screen (with Chinese subtitles). It was interesting because we were the only white people (not surprising, China is in love with HP too) and if a joke or something funny happened in the movie we were the only ones in the crowd to laugh. The humor just didn't seem to get through the translation, poor Chinese people - no laughs for them.


This is Windows of the World at night from across the street. The lit up tower is the mini Eiffel Tower and the rest is part of the German village.


Sort of random picture. This building is on my walk every day to the bus. It was having a celebration of some sort and had put out all these big red balls. I just thought it was weird that it had that clear plastic covering as well. But after I noticed them here I started seeing them all over the city that week.


In China, they don't have true popcorn. Any time you get some at the movie theater or at these little popcorn vendors it's caramel corn! Granted, caramel corn is pretty good too, but sometimes you just want that nice salty buttered popcorn that you know and love. The only place you can find it is in Shekou, around the Western part of town and there you can get the great Act II Butter Lover's packaged microwavable popcorn. I finally caved and got myself a couple packs. I went to eat some the other night and it was my first time using the microwave here. I had never noticed before that there wasn't the usual "popcorn" and such settings (not that I ever really used those much before, but it's still nice to have) - instead we've got things like rice, fish, and skewers settings. Well luckily microwaving is easy and every true American knows how to pop some great popcorn without burning it.

Holy Shenzhen speed, Batman!

Every year our school has a sports meeting. This is where all the different senior classes and teachers come out and compete in a number of activities. Today they had a rehearsal for the big event that is coming up. During the practice each group (a couple hundred kids) came out and performed their specialty - either kung fu, jump rope or this wake up routine that they know. I ended up sitting with a couple of my students which was fun and they kept me informed about what all was happening.


Starbucks has even taken over China. All of the drinks are Western prices, which hurts, but it is nice to go sit, have a hot chocolate and read a good book. It makes me feel like home.


We stayed at Leah's after eating curry at Jenny and Genevieve's. In Leah's neighborhood there is every kind of street food you would want, including a lot of barbecue. This is the stand the boys stopped at and each ordered a few random things on sticks. The men barbecue the food right in front of you, throw some seasoning on it and away you go. You can see in the picture a lot of different options, including bananas on a stick (in front of the black shirt to the right). In the far right of the picture you can see hot dog type things - these were all shriveled up and did not look appealing. I personally went with some seasoned green beans down the street which were delicious as always.


It was Ben and Jenna's birthdays this week so they had a joint party on Friday. They rented out the top have of this wine bar. You paid 150 kuai to get in and it was all you could eat American food and all you could drink wine. Unfortunately since so many people came the food went really quick, but it was still a fun night.


This ship resides in a tiny pond in Shekou, the Western section of Nanshan. There is a bar and possibly restaurant on board that are both very expensive. But in this picture I want you to focus on the white wall that is in front of the ship. I have been warned before that in China, if you see something you want to buy or want to do, DO IT NOW! Because it will not be there two weeks, one week, possibly a day from now. This wall taught me that lesson the hard way. In Shekou there was a nice shopping building that had cute Chinese souvenirs. One shop was selling little tea sets for 40 kuai a piece. I had been planning for two months to go buy a couple sets for people back home and finally made it back to Shekou to do so. Well....this wall had arisen, completely barring me from the shopping building. Finally I found a way around and to my dismay, all the little shops were gone due to no longer having walking traffic because of the wall. It was a disappointing day.


We made cookies!!! Who thought it was possible? I had my doubts. I stayed over at Jess and Marie's and since we had failed at making cookies the last time I was there Jess and I wanted to try again. She had found baking powder at one of the international stores which was our missing ingredient last time. So a little time, patience, and watching the toaster oven very carefully we created 20 M&M Oatmeal cookies without burning a single one! If you didn't know, in China people don't really bake and cookies are not eaten so this was a very exciting time for us.


My cafeteria! Fuat and I receive three meals a day here for free. Breakfast is by far the best, but there are a lot of good lunch and dinner dishes as well. You get to pick three different things for each meal and add some rice for lunch and dinner, some fruit during lunch or some soy milk during breakfast and you are good to go.


This statue of Deng XiaoPing is in Lianhuashan Park on top of a small mountain. Deng XiaoPing was the leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978-1992. He created the Special Economic Zones (SEZ), therefore founding Shenzhen as it is known today. Obviously, the people of Shenzhen love him and try to remember him in every way. I visited Cliff's school and he lives walking distance from the park so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and do some hiking to see the statue. We sort of thing Deng XiaoPing's statue resembles an older version of Robin Williams...just saying...


One of my fellow teachers bought this for me for my birthday.


Oh Chinglish :) This is in one of the high-end malls in Nanshan. This was also the day that we went out and celebrated my birthday. A couple of us went ice skating in the mall and then hung around for awhile, got some ice cream and played cards. Afterward we met up with a bunch of people at the Basketball Beer Garden which was a lot of fun.


I went out to a banquet with the Senior 2 teachers. Afterward, one of the teachers, Tracy, invited me to join her and her friends in a night of Mahjong (麻將). They play it as a gambling game, each putting in 100 RMB at the beginning and different things happen to win you 5 RMB at a time from other players. The table that you play on is amazing. There is a circle in the middle where you press a button. The circle raises up and you push in the Mahjong tiles after the hand is done. Then the slots that you can see in the picture each lower down for each person, a new set of tiles is pushed onto the slot and the slot raises back up with a whole new set of tiles. Tracy taught me how to play and after awhile I got to take her spot for a bit. I couldn't play as fast as the rest, but I won a number of my hands and understood what was going on. I had a great time.


Nothing stops for rain in China, including the motorcycle taxis.

Vomin on the Bus

Vomiting on the bus....this is an art form in China. We still haven't figured out why in China so many more people vomit on the bus than in America, but it seems to be true. Every bus is equipped with a pile full of little black bags for anyone to grab who is feeling the urge. Andrew has had the pleasure of seeing one lady forget about the bag and just vomit all over the bus. We've decided that since driving in China is so crazy, that possibly the jolts and movements of Chinese buses are so much greater and therefore lead to higher chances of throwing up. I'm not going to lie, there have been a few buses that have been so jittery that I have even contemplated grabbing a little black bag. But lets all hope it never comes to that.


So this is one of the paths on my way home from the bus stop if I walk. (Mom/Dad - Don't worry, I know it's dark but it always has lots of people on it and at the next block the path lights up a bunch) So the reason I took this picture is because of the fact that it is very dark. Due to this, this short stretch of walkway has become the "Lovers Lane" of Xili. Almost every night I take this route there are at least five couples talking/holding hands/making out. It is this weird phenomenon that they all congregate at this one spot. I tend to quickly walk past with my head down because walking through a bunch of people PDAing is just not a comfortable thing to do.


My birthday!!
A bunch of people came out and shared dinner with me. It was a great night. We all went to the local Communist restaurant in Xili (look at my September 7th post for my info if you want). The meal was pretty good and I received three cakes from people! So we all got to try some carrot cake, some Chinese pink cake, and a chocolate cake that Jessica had ordered special. Jessica came all the way out from Longgang for the evening. So she came home with me and got to see the wondrous 2nd Senior High. We had a fun night just sitting and chatting, plus I taught her some stuff about Bridge. All in all it was a great birthday with fun friends. And I get to celebrate more on Saturday!
From the Left: Trevor, Jessica, Fuat, Courtney, Me, Stephanie, Garrett, Jenna, Julie, Genevieve, Jenny


Today was the book festival at my school. Every student brings one book from home that they like that they would recommend to others. Then as a class they try and sell all of their books to the other students at discounted prices. I was walking through and one of my classes grabbed me and insisted I buy something from them. The only book in English they had was Twilight....So, despite me having already read it and knowing it's not that great of a book, I decided to buy it so I could help them out. My deal with them was that if I bought it then they all had to sign the inside cover. Now I have a signed copy of Twilight with all sorts of Chinese names, I think it was a good deal :)

Also this night I had my first experience with KTV. In China, karaoke is really really popular. But instead of going to a bar and singing in front of everyone, at KTV you get a private room with your friends and just sing to each other. Our school treated all the Senior 1 teachers for classes 1-10 (my classes) to an evening out. So we went to a beautiful building in the center of Nanshan, had a buffet dinner, and played games and sang all night. Both Fuat and I went so we were able to support each other on the English songs. We luckily were only talked into three (neither Fuat nor I can sing and I was still sick). We sang Hello, Goodbye by the Beatles, Hotel California by The Eagles, and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody was by far the best because the other Chinese teachers got into the rhythm and were jamming out with us.


So the problem with Halloween was that I had already been sick with a cold before I went out to the party. And despite me only having half of a beer the entire evening, on Sunday I felt like crap. So....the only times I got out of bed were to get lunch and dinner, and even then I got them to go and went back upstairs and ate my meals in bed. I think I watched 14 episodes of Glee that day. Except for my annoying cold, it was a very relaxing nice day where I literally did nothing.


Halloween Celebrations!!! Cliff and I started the day out in Dongmen shopping around for warm clothes and halloween costumes. I decided to go as an autograph book (I reused my idea from last year). Unfortunately Cliff got sick before the festivities started and couldn't come out to play. So Andrew and I head to the beer garden where we were all meeting. I started the night out with a relatively blank white shirt and pair of pants and by the end of the night had signatures all over the place!
Some of the more memorable signatures:
Hello, I am Cara. I'm fine, sank you. And you?
Nothing fina than a cow in a diner! -Nora
Pity the Fool - from Mike who was dressed as Mr. T
Al says: "Good day to you sir" (he's British)

And of course there were lots of "----- was here" and things of that nature.

At one point in the night we all got on the metro to head to the next bar area. Collin decided I needed more Chinese characters on my clothing (which was true) so we started going to random Chinese people on the subway asking them to sign my shirt. Most of them thought it was really funny and enjoyed participating. One girl, for fear that we would ask her next, actually hid her face in her hands and tried putting herself as far away from us as possible until we left. The night was a lot of fun. We spent most of the time at a dance club in the more Western part of town. There were a ton of people there, foreigners and Chinese, and everyone was dressed up. So China does know how to throw a great Halloween party after all.


One of the many food options at the infamous Basketball Beer Garden.


During the Yunnan trip one of my pairs of jeans got to the point where they were beyond repair. Since this is China and we all have relatively few possessions, I didn't want to just throw them away. Jessica and I brain stormed and we came up with making a picture frame out of them. And not to seem boastful, but I think it turned out really well. All the pictures are from our trip and now I have a nice (slightly weird) piece of wall art to hang up in my room.


This has the best pizza in Shenzhen I'm pretty sure (by best I mean closest to American pizza). It takes forever to actually get your order, but it is definitely worth it.


Tuesday nights are our dinner nights either in Xili or a neighboring town. This Tuesday we went out to our friend Lisa's place which has an area of old town China that has turned into tons of street vendors and cheap restaurants. At dinner I was reaching under the table reaching for something and my friend Conner asked "What did you lose?" I came up and said "A puppy!" Not quite what he was expecting. The restaurant owner ended up also being the owner of this puppy and a cat that just wandered the place saying hello.


Every Monday the entire school goes out onto the soccer field to watch the raising of the flag. Fuat and I don't have to attend, and to be honest this was only the second one I went to in the last two months. Beyond raising the flag the Principal gets up and gives a long speech in Chinese so it's rather boring (even the other teachers say we shouldn't go since we don't have to).