Mahjong

Get 4 people together, throw 136 tiles on the table (similar in size to dominos), roll the dice and you've got a game of mahjong going. The closest thing I can compare it to is gin rummy with a bunch of variations thrown in. Add to that the fact that many of the tiles have only chinese characters on them for names and numbers and the complexity increases exponentially. A bunch of us have been getting together the last couple weekends and it's been good fun. A bit of money is involved too, but it is low enough to not put a dent in the good times. I got a set for the apartment here, but we went to a tea place this weekend that has a mahjong electronic mechanical table. Boy are they sweet! It saves an incredible amount of time in sorting and stacking the tiles. You can go to the parks when the weather is nice out and you'll see groups of people playing mahjong all over the place.

We took the public rental bikes and went on a small journey this weekend to the base of the nearby Qingling Mountains. I learned 2 things: one, those bikes are not made for long journeys (oh, my aching butt) and two, on a nice day there is a lot of traffic going to the mountains and being on a bike is not so much fun. The air was not real clean and there was a lot of dust blowing around. We made it back before dark (my main goal, although people here don't seem to mind riding bikes without helmets or lights of any kind). I think next time I'll just take the bus to the mountains and hike from there (I did it earlier this year with my principal Darryl).

Speaking of Darryl, he announced this week that he has accepted a transfer position to another school in Ningbo (just south of Shanghai a bit). They then moved the Head of Curriculum, David McConnell, to the principal position. He's a nice guy, from Scotland. His position was then open, and someone suggested that I go for it, so I threw my name in the hat. They haven't even decided yet if they're going to have that position next year, but if so, I think it would be a good move. You still teach classes (although hopefully not as many depending on staffing) and get a small pay raise. The Chinese government is supposedly coming out with some news next month regarding education which may affect all foreign schools here. We'll have to wait and see. The Chinese government is not known for being very quick about things (when you think about it, are any governments??).

Been following the NCAA basketball tourney vicariously, and was surprised to see Michigan State made it to the final four. I didn't pick any of my home teams to go anywhere this year, deciding not to play favorites. Next year it'll be home teams all the way!

We had some pretty cold weather last week, but the last couple of days it has been in the 70's. I want to put the winter jacket away, but not quite sure yet. The air hasn't been very clean unfortunately. People said it would clear up when the heating was turned off March 15, but that doesn't seem to really be the case.

Monday is a national holiday - Tomb Sweeping Day. Visit your ancestors and clean up their gravesites. No big plans here. That puts us a month away from the AP exams, and after that classes are supposedly pretty relaxed.

My phone was acting up and I decided I better get a new one before it just died on me. Oh, this new technology is time-consuming! I've spent hours trying to fine-tune it and it's still not there. This morning I woke up thinking it was a little late. The phone had died during the night (it is my alarm clock). I have no idea why. But my internal alarm clock was good enough to get me to school on time. Having all the instructions in Chinese is not helpful!

Go Spartans!!

And the heat goes off...

Today, March 15, is the official end of the heating season in China. Heat gets turned off after today across the country. Luckily, the weather has definitely gotten warmer the last few days, and if this continues, having no heat will not be an issue. If it does get cold, however, pile on the blankets and get the space heaters out...

I started back to school on Tuesday after being at an AP conference in Suzhou for 3 days (it's about a 2 hour flight from Xián and it is about a 60 minute taxi ride from Shanghai). Because of the location of the conference (a school in the southernmost part) and the long hours we were not able to get any sight-seeing in. They flew in all the instructors from the states - and one of them was the same one I had at a conference 3 years ago in Vancouver, Washington! But here's the real kicker - I was talking to a woman there and asked her where she came from. "Detroit." Really? Where'd you go to high school? "Groves." What are the chances? Where'd you go to college? "Michigan State." I don't think I've ever met anyone while in the States who went to my high school, and here I am in China and run across someone... She wasn't born until 1989, though, so her graduating class is nowhere near mine. Sounds like not a whole lot has changed, except there aren't as many students there as in 1973.

It has taken a while to get back into the school groove after the 3 weeks off for the lunar new year festival and then the AP conference. I asked the students if they enjoyed their vacation and the overwhelming consensus was "No." What'd you do over the holiday? "Study." And that's one of the reasons their test scores are so high. That's all they do. I wonder sometimes if they know how to have fun...

One of our Economics teachers had a bit of a meltdown this week. He only came in 1 day and called in sick the rest of the days. He was ready to quit and had booked a flight home. We took him out last night for a going-away party and in the process talked him into staying until the end of the school year. It would've really created a bind if he left - you can't find a teacher on such short notice to come over to China and teach for a couple months! He came here actually filling in for another teacher who had quit. His first day teaching here was Christmas day. Before getting this job, he didn't even have a passport and had never been out of the country. So the whole thing has been a huge shock to him. We told him the end of the school year would go by fast - I hope we weren't lying!

Our last day of school is July 4. Until then, we have 2 days off - creating 2 3-day weekends. One day off is April 6 (Tomb Sweeping Day) and the other is May 1 (Labor Day). The good news is there should be no more Saturday or Sunday teaching days for us! Of course, this is China, and that could change, but none are scheduled which is a good thing!

They have started up a free bicycle loan program this year in Xián. I went with a couple people yesterday to get registered for it. They have bike locations all around the city and you just go up and swipe a credit card to unlock the bike and take off! The registration process was insanely chaotic and inefficient, but now that we have that out of the way we've got a new way to get around. With the weather getting nicer, it should make it much more pleasant to get somewhere without having to ride on a super crowded bus or catch an elusive taxi. You do have to be alert, though, as the traffic signals here tend to just be suggestions for most drivers!

I see the States is back on daylight savings time. They don't do that in China, nor do they have time zones. The entire country is on one single time zone. It works out ok here in Xian because we're sort of in the middle of the country, but I would think in the far east or far west you would get some crazy sunrise and sunset times...

March Madness? We're going to have a pool in our staff room. No one knows anything about any of the teams this year - no college games are televised (you can catch some pro games or pro highlights on one of the chinese tv stations). Should be fun though!

Well that's it for now. I haven't been as diligent about making regular postings - time seems like it's flying by lately. I'll try to do better!

Nam Now

Vietnam is but a memory now. I flew into Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon and still called that by many) and from there directly to the island of Phu Quoc. All of my approximately 8 days were spent on the island - the only time I spent on the mainland was to catch a plane transfer at Ho Chi Minh City. First impression - warm and humid!! Ah, that felt nice! The water was unbelievably warm. I think it rained during the first night I was there, but otherwise no rain. Blue skies and occasional clouds! They were also celebrating the Lunar New Year, so many of the places were closed or only open during limited times. Definitely not crowded. Most of the people I met, who were not local Vietnamese, were Europeans. I only met 2 Americans the whole time - and they were from Oregon! (Ashland).

So I figure the best way to share the pics I took is through Google Picasa. I've uploaded the pics, presently without captions (I'll try to add some later) and they can be browsed at your leisure. I did go scuba diving, and one of the folders is from the underwater camera I took. I had a personal guide underwater, Jyri, from Finland. The water was warm (I could've gone without the wetsuit) but you have to wear one. There were many jellyfish in the water but I didn't see any around us during the dives. I was disappointed in the water visibility - it wasn't very good. We did 2 dives in one day at 2 different locations. Because of the visibility, I decided it was not worth it to do any more dives...

Here are the links to the pics:
https://plus.google.com/photos/102773079683555477704/albums/6119764212916831089
https://plus.google.com/photos/102773079683555477704/albums/6119763000572804753
https://plus.google.com/photos/102773079683555477704/albums/6119760641392656817
https://plus.google.com/photos/102773079683555477704/albums/6122209531031021745

There was one beach that was my favorite, Sao Beach, towards the south of the island.
I rented a motor scooter for 3 of the days. That's really how everyone gets around unless you take a taxi. Very few autos. Thousands of scooters! I was staying on the west coast of the island about in the middle of the island. You could spend an entire day just exploring the north, and then another day exploring the south. Pretty big island. Signage was poor to nonexistent but if you got lost you could just backtrack to a familiar place.

The vacation served its purpose - relaxation and mind clearing. And it's very cheap there too so you don't spend a ton of money. For a week, I was a millionaire ( 1,000,000 Vietnamese Dong = $46.82).

The Lunar New Year festival is winding down. On March 5 is Lantern Day which ends it. I have already sent a few lanterns up into the sky.

School resumes on March 7, but I will be going to an AP Conference in Suzhou March 6-9 so I miss a couple days of school. I'm looking forward to the conference and seeing Suzhou!