All of the "lanterns" are made with a hollow frame. lighting inside, and then covered with fabric. Hope these pics give you a flavor of it!
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Latern Show!
Made it to the lantern show last Saturday - the last weekend before they take it down. It was on top of the city wall that goes around downtown Xi'an. The colors and lighting are really nice. There are 2 main lantern shows in Xi'an during every Chinese Lunar New Year Festival (at least that I'm aware of), and the other one is located more on the outskirts of the city. As the festival already passed, the admission fee was reduced from 100 yuan to 60 yuan. I don't know if the fact it was a reduced price, or the last few days of the show, or it is simply always this way, but there were a lot of people there!
All of the "lanterns" are made with a hollow frame. lighting inside, and then covered with fabric. Hope these pics give you a flavor of it!
That's it for today! It's staying warm enough here so that I don't miss the fact that the heat has been turned off!
All of the "lanterns" are made with a hollow frame. lighting inside, and then covered with fabric. Hope these pics give you a flavor of it!
Friday, March 11, 2016
Get back here Spring!
A week ago we were basking in some good, warm weather. Then, it suddenly changed. Wednesday it actually snowed here (didn't stick). It is still early March, but we need the warm weather by March 15 because that's when the government turns the heat off! Weather forecast is calling for some warmer weather, so we'll see...
When spring hits here, they do some major clean-ups of the bushes and grass along the sidewalks and parkways. They also are as apt to just pull trees out and plant new ones as just prune the old ones. I don't get it, but it does provide people with jobs. They don't use a lot of mechanical equipment, they just use a lot of people. It's like a small army suddenly descends on an area, and voila, at the end of the day you have new landscaping! The sidewalks here really took a beating this winter (they are basically just tiles laid on a concrete-type foundation) and will require major renovation if they want to fix them up. Haven't seen anything happening on that front yet...
At my school, we are in "past papers" mode. That's when the curriculum is finished and you do nothing but study past test papers that have been released. It is what the Chinese excel at and why they do so well on the tests. Many of the students hardly pay attention during the regular school year, but once we are in past papers mode they suddenly kick into gear and just cram it all in. I find it boring from a teaching perspective, and having such emphasis on tests is not what education is all about in my book. But their education has been structured that way here for a LONG time (blame Confucius I guess!) and most of them seem comfortable with it.
Last night, I went with Sky to see Zootopia. They show 2 versions here - one in English and one in dubbed Chinese. You just have to make sure you get to the right one (and oftentimes the people that work at the cinema can't tell you unless they go ask the boss). We once had to leave a show when it quickly became apparent it was all in Chinese. Luckily they gave us a refund, because they won't always do that! (Once they have your money, they want to keep it!). Anyways, I did enjoy Zootopia but must admit I snoozed for maybe 10 minutes in the middle. (Hey, it was Friday night and I was tired from a week of work!). The movie is very popular here - the theater was sold out.
Since the new semester at school, we have started new extracurricular activities. So now I am teaching 13 eager Chinese teenagers how to play frisbee! They seem to really enjoy it - a few of them are naturals and the rest will get better with practice. Yesterday, I had them stand in the little semi-circle area that is out in front of the goal on the soccer field and just aim it into the back of the net - it's not very far). On the first round, not a single student got it inside the goal bars! By the end, though, they were getting it in more times than missing... I hope to eventually get them to play some games of Frisbee Ultimate...
Tonight, some of us may go downtown to see the Lantern show. It is part of the spring festival, which has already passed, but they continue to do the show for a while. It looks cool, and this is the last weekend for it, so I hope we can make it!
Hope everyone is staying dry, warm, and enjoying appearance of spring flowers (only a few blossoms here so far)!
Ggg
When spring hits here, they do some major clean-ups of the bushes and grass along the sidewalks and parkways. They also are as apt to just pull trees out and plant new ones as just prune the old ones. I don't get it, but it does provide people with jobs. They don't use a lot of mechanical equipment, they just use a lot of people. It's like a small army suddenly descends on an area, and voila, at the end of the day you have new landscaping! The sidewalks here really took a beating this winter (they are basically just tiles laid on a concrete-type foundation) and will require major renovation if they want to fix them up. Haven't seen anything happening on that front yet...
At my school, we are in "past papers" mode. That's when the curriculum is finished and you do nothing but study past test papers that have been released. It is what the Chinese excel at and why they do so well on the tests. Many of the students hardly pay attention during the regular school year, but once we are in past papers mode they suddenly kick into gear and just cram it all in. I find it boring from a teaching perspective, and having such emphasis on tests is not what education is all about in my book. But their education has been structured that way here for a LONG time (blame Confucius I guess!) and most of them seem comfortable with it.
Last night, I went with Sky to see Zootopia. They show 2 versions here - one in English and one in dubbed Chinese. You just have to make sure you get to the right one (and oftentimes the people that work at the cinema can't tell you unless they go ask the boss). We once had to leave a show when it quickly became apparent it was all in Chinese. Luckily they gave us a refund, because they won't always do that! (Once they have your money, they want to keep it!). Anyways, I did enjoy Zootopia but must admit I snoozed for maybe 10 minutes in the middle. (Hey, it was Friday night and I was tired from a week of work!). The movie is very popular here - the theater was sold out.
Since the new semester at school, we have started new extracurricular activities. So now I am teaching 13 eager Chinese teenagers how to play frisbee! They seem to really enjoy it - a few of them are naturals and the rest will get better with practice. Yesterday, I had them stand in the little semi-circle area that is out in front of the goal on the soccer field and just aim it into the back of the net - it's not very far). On the first round, not a single student got it inside the goal bars! By the end, though, they were getting it in more times than missing... I hope to eventually get them to play some games of Frisbee Ultimate...
Tonight, some of us may go downtown to see the Lantern show. It is part of the spring festival, which has already passed, but they continue to do the show for a while. It looks cool, and this is the last weekend for it, so I hope we can make it!
Hope everyone is staying dry, warm, and enjoying appearance of spring flowers (only a few blossoms here so far)!
Ggg
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