And the heat goes on... (Nancy Sinatra does China)

So I noticed over the weekend that my apartment was getting cold. I felt the radiators and they were cold. Hmmm... so I went down to the manager's office (in another building about 300 meters away) to ask about it. When I walk in the door, the woman that works there almost immediately grabs the phone to call someone who can translate for me. I tell them my apartment is cold. She says, that's not a problem, all the heat is shut off for 6 hours a day (from Midnight - 3am and Noon - 3pm) and it will be back on shortly.(Never mind that it wasn't during those hours when I came in.) So it was cold all weekend and still cold this morning (I had my trusty little space heater at the foot of my bed to keep me warm) and I knew something was not right. When you buy heat here, it is like all utilities, the money you pay is loaded onto a credit card for that utility, which you insert into a meter designated for that utility at your apartment. The utility will last until your money is used up, then you go reload the card again (It's really annoying when your electricity suddenly goes out at 9pm and the office is closed so you can't buy more electricity until the next day). I had bought heat back in November around the time when they turned the heat on (November 15). There should have been plenty left. But I had never inserted my heating card anywhere because I saw any place to put it, so I figured in my illogical American mind that the heating is handled differently. Well, we found out, after much discussion and back-and-forth, that the money I had put on the card was still on the card, and apparently I had been using whatever money had been left on the heating meter when I moved into the apartment. So where is the heating meter to insert the card, you ask? Across the hall from my apartment door inside a locked room. Now why didn't I know that? So a technician came over to sort it all out and I now have heat. The purpose of this little discussion is just to give you a flavor of what it's like oftentimes to get something done here. You don't get the right story the first time, then they try to brush you off so they don't have to do any work, and you end up calling a technician to fix a problem that never should have been a problem...

One of the reasons I wanted to get the heat on quickly was that there is actually snow in the forecast for the first time since I've been here. I thought it might be nice to have a warm place to go to...
Whether or not the snow comes, we'll see - my students say never trust a chinese weather forecast.

We went and saw The Hobbit in 3-D on Saturday afternoon. The movie (in 3-D) was only $4.00. Not bad, eh? I stay away from the popcorn because they serve it with sugar (which is OK) but I still prefer the good old artery hardening salt and butter.

Our students take their semester exams the end of this week. They don't get too worked up over them because for them the tests don't really mean anything. The only thing they care about are the SAT, AP, and Toefl (english proficiency test). Last week 2 of my classes were gone on Thursday and Friday as they flew to Hong Kong to take the SAT (it is not given in mainland China). They are not satisfied unless they get scores of 750 or better (800 is the max on the subjects). The only time they will say that they did well is if they get a perfect score. It is crazy. They have absolutely no trouble with the math section, but spend countless hours studying the english and vocabulary. I would venture to say that they know more vocabulary than most American students. Using the words correctly in a sentence, however, is another story...

If you looked at the photos from the Terracota warriors adventure last weekend, you may have noticed how close we got to them. In fact, we were standing there with our arms around them. Sorry to say those were not the real warriors - those were some duplicates that you could pay $1 to get your picture taken with them.

It has been rather polluted lately - I went out and bought myself a comfortable mask today. The disposable ones I've been wearing are not comfortable at all:

Terracota Warriors

Having not made it out to see the Terracota figures yet, I figured this last weekend was a good time to go. I heard the crowds in the winter are minimal, so Jake, Sky and I took off at 7:30 Saturday morning to see what it was all about. Compared to the October holiday when we had originally planned to go but made it only as far as Li Mountain, the bus terminal was deserted. It was so nice - we didn't have to wait in a line anywhere! Definitely the time to go. It was cold, but all the exhibits are indoors so it doesn't really matter. Here is a link to the pictures I took:

 https://plus.google.com/u/0/102773079683555477704/stories/e350e6dd-f3a0-3427-981d-c5ab56f0e73a14b0643c7ec

The whole day ended up costing only about $10 (including transportation, food, and park fee). Can't complain. Thought about hiring a guide but we decided to go solo. Probably would've learned a bit more but we piggy-backed on a few tours to get some tid-bits...

I wore my Oregon shirt on national championship game day, but apparently the Ducks weren't aware of it and took a drubbing. American football is not big here at all (basketball, however, is) and we learned of the final score sometime shortly after lunch at school I think. Well, good luck to Mariota in his future travails!

My cough/cold seems to be improving this week. Wonder if the fact that the pollution has lightened up has anything to do with it?? The extended forecast has rain for Monday. That would be the first precipitation in ages if that actually occurs...

I told my classes that Monday was Martin Luther King day in the US. They can't believe all the holidays we have. Funny how most of them fall on Monday too. And how no one really does any commemoration of who the holiday is for...

This weekend a bunch of us are going to see the new Hobbit movie that is opening here. Afterwards, we'll trek to the city wall where they have a bunch of decorations up for the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the sheep (of which I am a member of) and they've got a bunch of colorful sheep statues scattered all around. I'll be baaaaaack!

285 - Heavily Polluted

There's an app for that. It's simple - called Air Quality. It sends out alerts when the air particulate matter gets above certain levels. Today it's at 285. Someone makes up the adjective that goes along with the number.  For 285 it's Heavily Polluted. You don't need an app to tell there's pollution, however (as Bob Dylan said, "you don't need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows..."
Just take a look and take a nice deep breath... aaaahhhhhh!!!!! So refreshing! The amazing thing is people tell you that last winter it was so much worse...

So I've been a bit under the weather the past 8 or 9 days and it is getting old. I went to the school clinic and the lady there (she wasn't a nurse - I don't know what she was...) gave me some antibiotics and cold medicine. She listened to my heart beating with a stethoscope for quite a while, but as Sky said she just had probably never seen a man with so much chest hair and wanted to stare for a while. A fellow teacher went to a hospital a couple weeks back (no doctors' offices - just go straight there - do not pass Go) with a cold and they diagnosed him with pneumonia and put him on an IV drip. He had to go back every day for a week and hook up to a drip for a few hours. $4000 later they declared him cured. No thanks...

So there's been some talk about Gmail being blocked recently. China never has liked the google family I suppose. Google has been blocked for who knows how long. But we all use a not very well-kept secret called VPNs -  that lets us get outside IP addresses and act as if we are in the US (or any other country we choose). So the Google block, as long as you're using a VPN, really has no effect (and this can't be any big secret to the Chinese government). So then I guess they recently decided to block gmail as well. Well, to us with VPNs, we did not notice. But local Chinese who sent or received gmail through the Chinese ISPs can no longer get it. So it has affected the Chinese students who try to email us and ask for recommendations or other sundries they need for admission to US colleges. The Chinese government is screwing their own people. I just have a hard time imagining what awful thing is coming through gmail that it must be blocked. ..

I have seen a few movies recently. I never downloaded movies illegally before, but here it is the only way that you'd be able to see most western movies. The western movies that show up in the cinemas are only ones that have no political bent whatsoever. And I recall someone saying that the government only allows so many US movies a year, which also limits viewing possibilities. So I've seen The Interview, The Gambler, American Sniper, Birdman, The Imitation Game and a slew of others. Many of the teachers here are real movie buffs, and while I'm sure I've seen many more movies than they have, they actually remember them all! Also watched a few TV series that I've never even heard of before - Utopia (British) and Black Mirror (also British) come to mind. And managed to finish a book called Serious Men last week too! That's what you do in the winter in Xián where there is little to do otherwise...

I think I'll go out now and take a deep breath...

One New Year's down, one to go...

They do celebrate the western New Year here in China, but it is apparently nothing like the Chinese New Year (which this year falls on Feb.19). There were some fireworks (seems like there always is, though) but otherwise relatively quiet here in Xián. Not the case in Shanghai, apparently, where the crowds were overwhelming and 36+ people got crushed to death (caused by a mad scramble for some fake US one dollar bills). When things like that happen here, people freak out, and then avoid all crowds afraid that it will happen again. So we were out over the weekend and the buses and malls were as quiet as I've ever seen them...

On New Year's Eve, the school stops classes after lunch and each classroom hosts its own New Years Party where they play games, music and eat lots of food. They invite the teachers to join in on the games, and so good-naturedly I agreed to a game of musical chairs.  I was down to the last 3 when I slipped going for a chair and hit my back right against the seat of the chair. Ouch! I struggled up and shook it off (the students were all worried I was hurt) and actually got one more round in before losing. I've got a bruise the size of a softball on my back and it's still sore. No more musical chairs for me...

The principal invited a bunch of us over to his apartment New Year's Eve for pasta. His wife cooked up a bunch of spaghetti noodles with red sauce or white sauce.Nice western meal! It was an early evening for everyone - I was home in bed by 10:30 (not unusual for me, actually).

School started back up on Sunday (I still don't understand the rationale for it), but I came down with something and spent the entire day in bed. Ditto Monday. Today I felt better except for a sore throat so I went in and did my duty. You feel bad missing a day here because the other teachers have to cover for you (no such thing as a substitute).

The weather here is pretty monotonous. 20's in the morning, 40's in the afternoon, usually cloudy with the sun peeking through occasionally (or something that resembles a yellow orb), and the pollution varying between good and moderately polluted. No rain in a long time and no wind either. The air is super dry which does help my clothes dry a bit faster than in the warmer weather.

Not much in the way of excitement over Xmas, it was kind of a nonevent... A couple of us here are trying to figure out a way to possibly catch a quarter or two of the Oregon football game - go Ducks!