Year of the Houzi (Monkey)

The last couple weeks at school have been pretty busy with end of term exams and marking. That has all finished now, and we have one last week of school before the spring festival starts (lunar new year holiday). Our holiday starts on Monday, February 1, but in a move designed to make sure that teachers don't get it too easy, we must teach on Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 30 and 31). I do not understand this at all, and with exams finished and everyone looking forward to the holiday, it is not easy to keep the students on task! We do have today off, though, Monday, Jan.25, but only because our host school has this day off for their students to study for their end of term exams (theirs makes a little more sense being right before the holiday!). So, 6 straight days of teaching and then we are off!

My holiday plans are looking like this: leave Xi'an on Monday, Feb.1 and fly to Guilin in southern China for 4 days. It is a place that is supposed to have some beautiful scenery, rock formations, caves, and the Li River which you can cruise down and see some rural China that is still left.
I'll return on Feb. 4 to Xi'an and then hang around here for about a week before flying to the island of Bali on Feb.12. Didn't think I'd take a vacation without visiting a tropical isle, did you? (Last year I went to an island off the coast of Vietnam if you recall.) Then I'll return to Xi'an on Feb.19 in time for the start-up of school on Feb.22.

We've had some snow this last week - I'd say 2-3 inches. The locals say it's the most snow in Xi'an since 2008. With it we've gotten some really cold weather - down around 10 at night, low 30's or high 20's in the day. Consequently, still snow and ice on the ground. Definitely the coldest weather I've experienced here! And I'm ready for it to go away! Long underwear is a necessity around here - it makes such a huge difference in your comfort level! I have to say that my apartment has stayed nice and cozy and I have no complaints in that area... getting consistent hot water can be an issue at times, however...

I saw my first american football game in China and it was a huge disappointment - all of the playoff games have been close from what I gather, but I saw Carolina clobber Arizona. It's hard to find a place to watch football here (you can't say just football or they'll think soccer). We located a bar in downtown Xian and got there at 7 am this morning to watch the game. There were only 4 Americans, one Welshman and 2 Chinese (one was the owner of the bar) in the place... I don't think I'll have an opportunity to watch the Super Bowl...

Well, I'm getting ready to cook up my specialty here - grilled ham & cheese sandwich. It's just too cold to go outside! More updates on the upcoming vacay later!

Air we go again!

The air has been atrocious this winter. Multiple days labeled severe pollution. I was going to buy an air filter for the apartment, but all of the more 'economical' ones were sold out. I then asked Sky where I might find one and he said, "Hey, I've got an extra one still in the box." And there it is above. Free is a very good price! They talk about all the side effects of such bad pollution and I really can't attest to them one way or the other. All I can say is that I miss going out and seeing the sun and breathing fresh-smelling air!!  There has been no precipitation this winter and on most days the wind is calm - perfect conditions for haze...

I saw my 2nd Chinese movie (English subtitles) on New Year's Eve. I think it was called Tomb's Legend or something like that (the translation is often totally different then the Chinese title). It reminded me of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Kind of the same story line. This one was in 3-D, however, and I must say the effects were some of the best I've seen in a 3-D movie. It played on a huge screen and the theater was sold out. At midnight (yes, I was up, but that's only because the movie was so late) there were some fireworks that people blew off - nothing spectacular but definitely higher than the 6 feet allowed for fireworks in Portland!

On New Years Day a few of us went to an attraction here where it involves some good puzzle solving and challenges to get through. There were 5 challenges to pick from, I think, and we chose the one called Alcatraz Island. They locked us into a couple cells and then the objective was for us to figure out how to get out. There are clues scattered around, but they tell you absolutely nothing. You have 1 hour to get out. We were slow in getting the hang of it, but gradually picked up speed. It was very challenging and not easy in the least. I'm sure they must've imported it from the US... We didn't make it out in the hour, but were probably 3/4 the way through. I would recommend it if you've ever heard of something like that...(you can pay for more time to finish, but it gets rather spendy...)

Then we finally made it to some hot springs. Not the kind of hot springs we usually think of, but a punch of pools (man-made) of various sizes filled with water to varying degrees of hotness. Some of the pools have medicinal herbs in them or other stuff for 'health' purposes. It is in a nice setting where it is quiet and we could actually look up in the sky and see a couple stars (and I mean a couple). We were there at night and it was very cold when you got out of one pool and raced to another!! I'm still thinking that somewhere here in China there must be some natural hot springs...

And to finish off the 3 day holiday there is a new German restaurant that opened in the mall that just opened close to my apartment. Had some breaded veal cutlets with good veggies, and ended with delicious apple strudel (unfortunately no ice cream). Do we really have to return to school tomorrow?

Oh, and lest I forget, I found a woman who can 'cure' toenail fungus! 

It only takes a year of treatments. I'll let you know how that turns out!! I have to give her credit, though, she attacked my big toenails with gusto. It practically takes a chain saw for me to cut them. They're still bandaged up, though, so I don't know what they look like. I'm supposed to go back in a month for more...

Happy New Year everyone!!!