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.
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