Halloweenie

Sometimes the Chinese students pick strange English names. I just started co-teaching a class on Photography, and there is a girl who choose Weenie as her name. I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet to find out how that came about, but I will surely recommend that she change it!

So you didn't know that I was an expert in Photography, eh? Well, it so happens I'm not. But we started teaching these extra-curricular activities and I choose Frisbee - but it isn't being offered this term so I have to team up with someone else in their activity. Lukas, an Economics teacher from Poland, is an expert on photography and he's really teaching it - I'm just sort of tagging along and helping. So we've had a couple classes and it has been interesting so far - maybe I'll get a new hobby!

Halloween is next weekend. You do see a few things around that acknowledge it - usually in a store or mall. But it is not really celebrated here and the idea of trick or treating would never fly... But there will be a few parties around, mostly ex-pats I imagine. Many Chinese think that you must dress up in something scary and don't know that you can really be anything you want...

The weather has really taken a turn towards winter this weekend. It feels like we haven't had any significant rainfall in a few weeks at least, but this weekend it's been raining and cold the whole time. It helps clean out the air! In about 3 weeks they'll be turning on the heat, which hopefully will be about the time we need it. Until this weekend, the temps have really been nice and mild...

I spent last weekend in Guangzhou at an AP Conference. As usual, there really wasn't much time to go out and do some exploring. We did go to a restaurant that was recommended, but we had no Chinese people with us and we had no clue what to order. So what we ordered was not very good and I decided I would've been happier visiting the McDonalds next to the hotel. (I actually did go the 2nd night - the very first time I went to a McDonalds here in China - and I must admit it was tasty...) It does no good going to a good restaurant if you can't order the good stuff!! Guangzhou is a huge city (3rd largest in China I think) and is known as a place to go for work. There really isn't much touristy stuff there - there's a TV tower (which is 2nd highest in the world or China?) - but how much of an attraction is a tv tower - and there are some ferrys you can apparently take around the rivers through Guangzhou. Anyways, not on my top 10 list of places to visit again...

I'm trying to get my pictures sorted out - hopefully next time I'll have a few pics to throw in here!
Boo!

My cup runneth over...

A popular form of natural medicine here is "cupping." It involves placing empty jars on one's back and creating some type of suction to draw the skin and blood up. I'm not really sure what it's supposed to do, but I thought I'd give it a try:

This woman used fire in a jar and then placed it on the back. The fire would suck up the skin as the air sought oxygen. The feeling as this went on was not remarkable. The woman did say that she was afraid of setting the hair on my back on fire (she had never done a Westerner before). They leave the jars on for about 15 minutes and then break the vacuum seal and take them off. The dark circles remain on your back for about 2 weeks before they fade away. It felt like I had a heavy backpack on my back during that 15 minute period. It was an interesting experience but not one I'm likely to repeat as I can't determine any benefit from it!

This next video I took in a mall here. It's common for the employees or workers in a store or restaurant to all get out and do a dance once in a while to attract attention.  I thought this one was interesting as it was all the chefs from the restaurant behind them. Locally, the hair salons do these dances often to attract attention to their store. I think they do it because they're bored to death because they have so many workers and they are often just standing around doing nothing:

I didn't do much during the week off for the national holiday. Sky took us to the local zoo one day. My expectations were pretty low, and for the most part they were met. Many of the animals were injured or maimed which was why they were in the zoo. I was impressed, however, with the circus. Yes, they have a circus performance at the zoo! This guy came out with 12 Siberian tigers and ran a routine with them. It was actually quite impressive and worth the price of admission (which was pretty steep - even more expensive than an American zoo). They also had a water show with dolphins, etc. but we couldn't make both of them...

We taught on Saturday (yesterday) to make up for one of the days we got off on the holiday. This upcoming week will be the first one in a while without interruptions. Next weekend I am off to Guangzhou for a 2-day AP workshop. I went to one last spring in Suzhou that was pretty good and this one should be too. They attract high quality speakers from the US to give the workshops. This one for Calculus next week has the head honcho for AP Calculus coming in. I am looking forward to it.

The next holiday that I'm aware of isn't until New Years Day. I think we get one day off. They also might give us Thanksgiving and/or Christmas Day off too, but that is at their discretion. The next significant holiday is at the end of January for the Chinese Lunar Festival that marks the beginning of the new lunar year. That vacation is usually 3 weeks long... But as usual, they won't firm up the dates for these things until about a week beforehand. Crazy way to run a school system I say!

Today reminds me of a nice, crisp autumn day. Sky and Jenny took me to see a movie, Inside Out, that is supposed to be good. It was advertised as being in English with Chinese subtitles, but when it started it was all in Chinese (dubbed) with no subtitles. So Sky said let's go... he tried to get a refund but they're just giving him the runaround so he doesn't think it'll happen. One thing I've noticed here in China is that once they have your money, your chances of a refund are slim to none...

I am waiting for this funk I am in to get over. It has not been much fun at the start of this school year, but it can only get better, right? : )