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!

Dong zhi

That is the name given to today, the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. The Chinese legend is that on this day, you must eat a dumpling or your ear will freeze. Thankfully, the school cafeteria serves dumplings on Mondays so that will be easy to do. During the flag raising ceremony this morning (mandatory every Monday), I did think my ears were going to fall off (16 degrees out this morning).

On Saturday morning was the Christmas program put on by the Grade 10 classes (called Foundation classes here). It started at 9 am and went until 12:30. A bit long! The parts I enjoyed the most were the traditional Chinese entertainment, but unfortunately there was little of that. Many of them tried to emulate the rap songs and dances, with varying degrees of success. A pic of a student who does ballet:

In the bottom photo, the student is playing an ancient Chinese instrument called a GuQin.

The program also auctioned off student works for charity. I bid on a couple watercolor pictures, yelling out "1000 RMB". It created quite a stir when they realized a foreign teacher had put in a bid.  It was quickly surpassed and ended up going for almost 4000 RMB, but a nice turn at the end was that the person who put in the winning bid presented me with the pictures as a gift. I got all choked up and had a hard time expressing my thanks.

Later that night, we had the Christmas dinner for our staff at a restaurant called China Roast. No hot pot this time, but lots of duck. It was a good dinner with plenty of food to go around.

Christmas falls on a Thursday, but we decided it would be nice to get Friday off and make it a 3-day weekend. The Chinese relented (they don't get the day off and will be covering our classes for us) so we lucked out...

I decided to share some US culture with my classes this week so I'm going to show A Christmas Story. They seem excited about it so we'll see how it goes.

I've got some more pics of the Xmas show but I'll have to post them later as they're on my laptop back at the apartment (where the water went off Friday but thankfully right after I took my shower - it seems to be a regular occurrence).

Stay warm and Merry Christmas everyone!!!

1000 and counting!

I've now hit over 1000 views of this blog! I will have to look into sprucing it up and selling some ad space on the side...

The word that comes to mind this past week is COLD. It's just cold - not wet or snowy or icy, but cold. In the morning it's in the upper teens or low twenties, and then gets up to the thirties or low forties in the afternoon. There is no frost or anything on the car windows - it's a dry cold. Some snow or something would be nice, but I guess that doesn't happen very often.  The temperature in my apartment is pretty comfortable now, but one has no control over the heat - you get what you get...

Yesterday a small group of students invited us foreign teachers to a hot pot dinner at a well-known restaurant near the Blue Goose Pagoda. It was one of the better hot pots I've had, but getting there was not easy. One thing we've found is that there is definitely a shortage of cabs in Xián - sometimes you can't find one for the life of you. So we ended up going on a bus... and then transferring to another bus... and they are almost always crowded. So it takes an hour... Part of Xián does have a subway system - which is very nice - and they are expanding it - but I imagine it will be quite a while before it gets down to the southern part of the city here.

So what are the Xmas holidays like here? Kind of like any other day. There are some ritzy stores that will have up a tree (fake) or a Merry Christmas banner but no strings of lights or anything. Haven't seen a Santa either (that would probably cause quite a stir). The students are putting on a Xmas presentation but it is on Saturday morning and goes on for about 4 hours according to those in the know. Hence not many of us plan on attending. Our staff is having a hot pot on Saturday night to celebrate but I imagine it will be fairly low-key. On Xmas weekend, some of the staff is going to a local mountain for a couple days to go skiing, but seeing as how I didn't really bring the winter gear for it, plus it isn't much of a mountain and the snow is all fake, I'm taking a pass. I've downloaded the movie A Christmas Story so maybe I'll watch that with the hangers-on. It is not a holiday here in China so all schools and businesses are open as usual.

Our main source of obtaining movies and shows here has been shut down. It was a website called The Pirate Bay. It's not what you'd call legal but it's the only way to get western entertainment here. I finished reading And the Mountains Echoed and am figuring out what to start next...

Sheng dan kuai le (Merry Christmas)

You will have no discipline problems...

Well, China is growing up. Ben said something to Frank that he didn't like. Frank hit Ben with his fist. I asked Frank to step outside the class so we could talk, and on the way out of the classroom, Frank picked a bottle up off of Ben's desk and struck him in the head with it. Result: lots of blood and 3 stitches in the head for Ben. I told the principal that Frank should be removed from school, but they both received a one week suspension and returned to class. They are both seniors, and will be going to the US next year at a university or community college (for them, probably a community college as their command of English is poor). The principal asked Frank to write an apology letter, responding to the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Here is his essay, unedited:

Firstly of all .all the problems could be solved through the civilized function. It means any contradictions can be addressed by the words which are the greatest invention during the development of human. There is old saying in Chinese that the most stupid people will use violence to solve problem. As to me I was the stupid gay .because I used the violence to deal the simple problem .originally is a very simple classmate contradiction. But I did the worst business. To hurt the people around me. Even so serious.Sometimes our words may not hurt the others .But the way we interview might cause great harm to the people.here is a storyAn ancient king dreamed all his teeth had faled out.He sent for a wise man to explain his dream to him:the dream means that all your relatives will die and you will be left alone.the king was very angry and threw the interpreter into prison.He then sent for another interpreter who said,”Congratulations!king!You will live many more years.In fact you will survivi all your relatives Long live the King”These two interpreters gave the same mean.But there are also differences between them some words will make people angry,some are not.Which would you prefer?So words have power we do need use them carefully.

Security. Really Ben's words didn't listen to me and damage myself esteem. to made me can not stand for it .but it didn't hurt  my bones .that is true .I should not give him such a serious injury in order to my self-respect .As a high school student, the responsibility is love the collective ,solidarity students, help each other and relations to other. In stand of doing the harm things to brothers. I do make mistake and I will say it to. To protect the brothers is my responsibility. And I will focus on it.

Finally. I do believe the sticks and stones will hurt people and the words do not give a people hurt so deep.so am i.i am not hurt deeper than Ben.i apologize for the mistake‍ 

Frank wrote a second essay as well but this one makes more sense.

And so for some reason I thought when I came over here that I would not run into this type of stuff. In fact, in 24 years of teaching I have never had violence of this nature in my classroom. The principal never had either - it was the first time he had encountered something like this in China, and he was not sure how to handle it. He praised me on my handling of it...

So they are back now. Learned a lesson? Perhaps. Ben has been working harder (why he was also suspended for saying some words I don't know). Frank has been nonproductive. They are a challenging class - all of the worst students have been tracked together. It's hard to imagine them being successful in the US. But it's the land of opportunity, right?