Climatized

Well, I think I'm finally settling into my groove. It's difficult to get to know a city when it's generally too cold out to do much exploring - but now with three weeks in country, I have a pretty basic, but solid, understanding of where things are, how to get to and from (a) AND (b), where to get cheap beer (AND how to ask for it), and - of course - some good restaurants.

The Newbie-Teacher Crew all met up again last night for our now weekly gathering. Somehow I managed to convince them all to brave the taxi-ride and come out to Jinzhou.

There is one restaurant I go to frequently, due mostly because it's close by and I've gotten to know the staff a bit, but also because the food is generally quite good. The one waitress speaks a small amount of English and is always eager to serve me to give it a bit of practice. Last night I think I nearly gave her a heart attack when I entered, with 7 other lao wai in tow.

We did dinner then in an equally interesting exchange, we went to my local beer guy and made his day when we took a case of Tsingtao off his hands. With promises that we'd switch off carrying the 24 large bottles up the 7 flights of stairs to my apartment, we headed upstairs to get a bit liquored (it should be said, Brian and Alan took the case the whole way...).

After clearing through the beer we headed down to a place I had heard about called HOT. It is a nightclub about 10 minutes walk away and was by and by quite cool. We showed the locals that they're not the only ones that don't know how to dance (man... aside from the showgirl-like chick in the tube-top, those kids didn't have a clue what a beat was - and I think the tube-top girl was likely paid to be there... and really scored most her points for just being damn sexy).

Today I slowly woke up, eagerly anticipating the fact that I had been invited to Serena's (one of my Chinese teachers/teacher assistants) houses to have lunch with her and her mother. Serena is an artist in the art program at one of Dalian's universities. She showed me photos of her work and DAMN. She's awesome. She also showed me photos of the warmer side of Dalian ... as all I've seen so far is people bundled in big jackets... but from her photos of the area, I am quite keen on it getting warmer out - there are some amazing places around here, including the largest aquarium in Asia.

Lunch was, in traditional Chinese fashion, dangerously filling. We had delicious dumplings and all sorts of other food. I had been warned about Chinese hospitality, and tried to eat as slowly as possible, but eventually I had to risk offence and state that I couldn't possibly eat another thing.

Serena and her mom.

Serena and I (leaning quite a bit, what's with that?).

We then watched A World Without Thieves - a quite entertaining Chinese film. It was on VCD, so reading the subtitles was a bit of a challenge - but it was good none the less.

Oh, speaking of Chinese movies... I watched Shi mian mai fu, or "House Of The Flying Daggers", the other day, and loved it. For those that don't know, it is the latest movie by Zhang Yimou, the guy that directed Hero. I have to admit, some of my liking of the movie may have to do with the fact that I'm absolutely in love with Zhang Ziyi (she was in Hero, and most notably in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).



Alright, I think Tom's nearly done watching the Australian open. I've tried quite unsuccessfully to get into tennis, but I just can't do it. So, time to make some noodles and see if I can't get through the better part of my new Aviator DVD... have I mentioned DVDs here are only $1 to buy... it's hard to not just go buy a bunch of DVDs every other day... so hard in fact, that that is exactly what I do.

Oh, did anyone notice that there was a comment in the last post from a certain person from my past - quite cool. I'd like it to be noted that a girl that has (on more than one occasion) stated that she would never talk to me again has now officially had more contact with me since I left Canada than some of my best friends... hint hint.

Feeding The Dog At The Table

Right. So I did it. Despite moral objections to the way in which the animal is killed, I can officially say - for the first time in my life - that I have cold, dead dog in my fridge.



After class today my neighbour Matthew and I went out for some Korean food. By and by it was all quite delicious. I cannot remember what any of it was called unfortunately, but please do give me credit, I am working my ass off trying to learn as much Chinese as I can - Korean is just not in the cards right now.

The dinner started with little dishes of various things being brought as appetizers (spicy cabbage is now one of my favs), then a grill in the middle of the table was lit and a bunch of (bacon looking) pork was set on it. You eat this by putting the cooked peice of meat in a lettuce leaf, adding some spicy peanut sauce (and whatever else you want from the table), folding and shoving in your mouth.

Next up was rice and goodies that basically all cook in front of you in a hot stone bowl - it was delicious. The dog soup was last; incidently why most of it is sitting in my fridge. I did however grab a few bits so I could give it a go while ol' yeller was still hot. I had asked a number of people what dog tasted like, and reviews were mixed - now I know why. It isn't really like any other meat... but similar enough that it's confusing. It's sort of like beef I guess, but softer - in a just as chewy sort of way.

It's funny that I got through Thailand having only eaten one paste made of a bug, and some unfortunate ants that picked the wrong hungry man's food to try and steal... but I've only been here a couple weeks and I've tried so many new and unusual things. I'm trying to keep as open a mind as possible, and am just taking as much in as I can.

So, it looks like I've managed to convince some of my Dalian friends to make the trip up here this weekend to check out all that Jinzhou district has to offer. My directions via e-mail were a bit convoluted, so they may end up in Shanghai or something... (that'd be a hell of a shared taxi ride)... but I am excited about having guests.

Also, I think I've (A) managed to weasel my way into a lesson on making dumplings that Annie (from the earlier post's photos) is giving to the boys next door and (B) decided to have a pot luck dinner during Spring Festival. Doris said she'd come, and Annie is already talking about it... so... I think it's a go.

Oh, one last thing while on the topic of food and drink... I bought a bottle of Chinese wine last night and though I was assured by the cashier that it was DRY... it tasted like someone had poured 1/2 a bag of sugar in it... I had been warned that Chinese wine was sweet... but, blah! It was drinkable... but not great. I will perhaps try a different brand...and learn the characters for DRY RED.

You Down With KTV? Yeah, You Know Me!

Right... so I think I totally confused the guy where I buy beer today. I gave him back the bits of cardboard that vouched that he owed me 2 kuai for the refund on the four bottles of beer I bought the other day... the problem entered when I bought him all 10 bottles that we had lying around the apartment. He kept looking at the bits of cardboard, going to the cash register, looking again at the bits of cardboard, looking in the bag full of bottles and counting... this little circular theatric went on until he eventually sighed, handed me some coins, smiled and (I can only imagine) willed me to leave the shop as quickly as possible. Damn lao wei, too much problem.

Speaking of confusing experiences... yesterday I decided to get my hair cut before my big night out on the town last night. I knew that there was some haircutters in the complex of apartments I live in, so I go to leave and can't open the door. Fine, Tom, the security conscious guy that he, is locked the door when he left for school - no big deal. I slid my key in the door to unlock it... turn... nothing. I jiggle it a bit, turn... still nothing. Panic begins to creep in... Yes folks, I got locked IN my house. A quick call to the school and Doris promises she'll call back with a solution. Sherry calls back a few minutes later and says that there will shortly be a man out my front window and 7 stories down waving... throw him my keys and he'll get me out. Sure enough, a man appeared, I through him my keys and he came up all 126 stairs and got me out. The poor bastard. Damn lao wei, too much problem.

Anyway, so I finally go out and started looking around for a haircutter. I walked up to a shop that had a big sign that said "Beauty Salon (along with a number of Chinese characters)". There was a truck driver out front... so I mimed cutting my hair and pointed at the building... he shook his head and mimed rubbing his face. Now, I'm not entirely sure what he was telling me, but I got the jist that it wasn't what I was searching for. I then mimed (I mime a lot here) the question of whether he knew of any haircutting places around here... he sort of shrugged and began walking away.

Assuming he had lost interest in me, I began walking in the opposite direction... when I hear, "Hello, Hello!" from behind me. He hadn't given up on me at all... he found me a little hair salon around the corner. So I go in... and I'll not go into all the details of the process by which I managed to get my haircut with not a common language between me and my friend with the scissors... but it got done. It's not fantastic - but for $0.75, I'm not going to complain.

I took a shared taxi into Dalian and met up with the other teachers I took orientation with. We headed to what I believe was called the German Beer House (literally the first place with food that had someone in the street asking us to come in). It was a pretty amazing place... sort of done up to be Western-style, but with a decidedly Chinese flavour. The first thing that surprised us was the lack of chopsticks and availability of cutlery, the second (and much more appreciated) was the dark ale they had in pitchers. After a bit of circular conversation trying to sort out what we were going to eat, we went with the only thing that was actually offered to us... basically for 33 kuai a head they just kept bringing us stuff skewered and BBQed. We had S. American style (whatever that is) sheep's leg, chicken hearts, cow's tongue... and a bunch of other equally delicious bits of animals.

After dinner we headed down the street to a KTV bar, or Karaoke Bar. My experience with Karaoke to this point was really just limited to my Friday nights at the Schnitzel Tavern - I was amazed at the seriousness that these folks put into their Karaoke. For 78 kuai/hr. you get a private room with a big couch, a TV and computer screen to pick songs. We spent the better part of our hour trying to figure out the Chinese controls for selecting songs - but did manage to get in some wonderful renditions of "Leavin' On A Jet Plane", "My Way" and "Dancing Queen".

The group of us: (Going around the table) Me, Andrew, a man that is handy with a knife, Joanna & Brian, Josh & Christie and Lorna.	KTV! We're talking something like 8 floors of PURE HARDCORE KARAOKE!
Token Action Shot.	And we were singin'... 'Bye, Bye Miss American Pie...'

After coming dangerously close to a second hour at KTV, we exited the Castle of Karaoke and went to a bar next door for some more drinks. The bar was pretty empty, but good fun regardless. It was nice to just hang out with some fellow teachers, getting opinions on our first week, our plans in the upcoming weeks, etc. After some chat, some beers and a bit of magnetic darts we called it a night. Brian and Joanna were kind enough to lend me their couch for the night, so the three of us along with Josh and Christie (who also live in the apartment building) headed to their place for some more drinks and chat. We crashed out at about three... and first thing this morning I found my way back to Jinzhou.

It was a great night out, I mean the stuff we did was alright, but it was really the people it was done with that made it so much fun. They're all a really good group of people - and from all over the globe, so it gives some nice variety on views and perspectives.

One thing I was surprised about was the size of Joanna and Brian's place. Not that our place is huge here in Jinzhou - but there is quite a bit more room. The bedrooms seem to be about the same size, but the kitchen and living area are a world different. I am hoping to have everyone out here next weekend for another night out - in the comparatively inexpensive Jinzhou.

The night was about as expensive as you can get, as we went all out on dinner, booze and everything... and even with the 30 minute taxi rides in and out of Dalian... didn't cost me more than $15 or $20.



Today I went hunting for a DVD player. I finally grew tired of wrestling with VCDs of questionable quality and looking at Tom's DVD collection sitting by the TV, just taunting me. My search led to my first visit to Kai Fa Qu (Kay Fa Tchu - or The Development Zone). Sherry (who lives there) took me to this huge shopping centre/mall thing that was just incredible. It was a massive five floors of shops, plus a big superstore in the basement. I found a compact little unit for 299 kuai and am quite happy with my purchase. Electronics aren't all the much cheaper here (cell phones are a fortune!), but 299 yuan works out to about $45 - so, not too bad.

Well, it's 11:30 p.m. and I've got a full day of classes tomorrow. My days off went quick, but were well spent.

What's in a name...

"I view living the day-to-day grind sort of like smoking. It's not cool, it's bad for you and in the end, it just leaves you feeling dirty and used."

Names. A funny thing at the best of times, in China it's a bit of an on-going practical joke that Westerners use to communicate to those that come after them. Many Chinese people do not have English names, but want them and are more than happy to take whatever name may be suggested to them by there Western "friend", "teacher" or what have you.

The interesting part is, largely when put on the spot, most people are a little strapped to come up with a good name that well defines the person it's being given to. My friend Tom, for instance, has grown tired of giving the names "Steven" and "Robert" and has resorted to handing out NBA player's names - some good solid Muslim monikers.

You also get a good portion of Chinese who try to figure it out for themselves and end up with names like Iceburg, River, etc, or with the names Cherry and Strawberry - the handles two of my Chinese teachers (teacher's assistants) go by.

I, for the most part, still feel a bit responsible for the future attention the name may be given - and so have stuck with some safer choices. Today I named a girl (the cousin of Doris, one of the women I work with) Kylie and my personal fav. to date was giving a girl in my adult class the name Dana. I mean, these are not horrible names, and very few Chinese people have them... so for that, I think they should be greatful. And yeah, sis, you should feel a bit cool that I honoured some cute Chinese girl by giving her the name of my sister. Oh, Vanessa, you've got a Chinese counterpart too.

My friend Doris.	The quite cute Maggie - who I thought I had conned into teaching me how to cook Chinese, but she said her boyfriend would get jealous.
My "boss" Sherry. She's awesome.	Annie, Doris and Maggie at the front reception desk - where I spend most my free time.

Told you I'd have some photos soon - wait.. there's a couple more. I'm sorry that there's nothing really exciting scenery-wise - but I don't know if I've mentioned this, but it's cold.. and my motivation to go around clicking photos while freezing my digits off, even if for the benefit of this blog, is limited.

Bu Xing Jie - or The Walking Street - on which my school rests.	The front door to my school - I swear, it's more inviting than it looks.
Another shot of Bu Xing Jie (pronounced Boo Sshing Jeeah).

I had my first Chinese lesson yesterday. It was awesome. Having now been here nearly two weeks I've picked up a good amount of the language (I think I'm actually ahead of my Thai) and it was nice to have a teacher put it into some sort of structure for me. While I'm certain I'll not be close to fluent when I leave, I am confident I'll be able to be functional.

All high on my new knowledge, I decided to put it to the test by grabbing some beer before my climb to my apartment (have I mentioned it's 126 steps? - Before you say, "You counted?!?!" I want you to seriously consider what you would spend your time doing while climbing 126 steps every day?). I went into the local shop and blurted out my well rehersed Wo xiang yao si ping pi jiu - to which was responded an enthusastic string of Chinese that I cannot ever hope to put meaning to. See, something I keep forgetting, people will always assume foreigners cannot speak the language... until they do - and then they expect you to understand every word.

A rather confusing few minutes transpired whereby the woman gathered my request bottles, put them in a bag, handed me some bits of cut up cigarette packs with a load of Chinese characters written on them and looked at me expectedly... though not once trying to take the money from my out-stretched hand. She then went into a long, and I can only assume detailed, explanation of what the bits of cardboard were for - intermitantly pointing at empty bottles. I figured she must mean that I am to return the bottles to her - "no problem", I said (which I now know is mei wen ti). Yet she still seemed reluctant to take my money - and insistant that I didn't understand. So her husband gave it a try... to which I again said (while miming drinking the beer, pointing at empty bottles, and pointing at the shop), "no problem."

Eventually I managed to give them my money, take the bottles and after counting to 126... receed to the safety of my apartment. First thing this morning I relayed the story to Doris... she laughed and confirmed that I need to bring the bottles back there - and if I do, my bits of cardboard will reward me with 2 kuai... ($0.30). Really... it was that big a deal.

Anyway... I just finished $0.15 of bottle refund, need to take a piss and head to bed. I'm super excited that I don't have to work tomorrow. I've finally got some time off, having worked seven days in a row. I am going into Dalian tomorrow to meet up with the crew I trained with for some dinner and drinks - should be fun.

Peace.

A Note From Nong

Right, so I don't know if I've ever mentioned to any of you my friend Nong in Thailand. I met her in Chiang Mai when she introduced herself to me as my new Thai girlfriend. She's quite funny.

Anyway, despite being funny, and a bit in need of a boyfriend, she is also one of the few people I know that is devoting her life to something better than for her own benefit. She works for an organization in Thailand called Empower that reaches out to Thai sex workers and rather than telling them what they are doing is wrong, understands WHY they are doing it. It teaches them to make sure they are not being cheated, abused, etc. Anyway... she recently headed down to Phuket and the area to help there with the relief effort. She sent me an update and I thought I'd share it with all of you. I'm sorry about the spelling/sentence structure... but who am I to complain - have you seen some of the stuff I write!? And English is my first language.

dear all friend ,
i arrived back to Chiang mai on last Friday but my work is still continue to follow up and we empower still have the follow up project to help and we think that we will send the team to go to down south
very often.. by the way before i tell all the story ,i would like
to say that i met Hilton and Anja in Krabi and we had a really nice dinner at italiano resturant the place which keith and i had been there 2 and a half years ago...

Hilton still be my great brother and he is find and ok with his girlfriend Anja and they start to help the people from phi phi island who escape to all destroy place in Phi phi and stay in Krabi town now.
they both still fight and they both have the business about scuba instruction in Ao noang still but the good thing of them is althrough that they still fight for their life but they still think of other people around them and try hard to help other as well so i bow to them.

my advanture in downsouth is so hard to tell all whole story and i saw all destroy place with my sad and all place we walk on is the land of dead and there are so many stroy along our trip and we just listen watch and see and remember in our heart and head we arrive in phuket on monday by thai airway and then go directly to Pathong for find out the information to help the entertainment worker so most of them have no hope and no job no money and still worry with all responsibity that they have to take over for their own family wait a head for them...
we went to Phang Nga and stay one night such we must go to meet the team in Khao lak such we must take the bus to Ta kua pa which all the emergency center there in Ta kua pa so we still smell all the dead body smell and we feel so sad...we met the team of Golbal fund which arrive yesterday also and we went to the fisher men village which all died amount 4000 people ... all thing were destroy to see everything is
nothing and wonder that the big boats flow far from the seashore more than 1000 metre....it is mission impssible indeed

so many work to do and help immediately there by the way we stayed with the team only one night and half day such we empower still have our own mission in this time such we must to find more imformation of the
people who work in entertainment place all thai and migrant and burmese in many area and we try to help them with our philosophy of the humanrights and the women rights .

we went to kuraburi for see the place of the Aung thing national park and the other fisher men place then go to Ranong for contact the team of world vision then stayd in Ranong one night and turn our head to
krabi and stayed there one night beofre we took bus to phuket and take a plane back to Chiang mai... some fishermen told us the story about before the Tsunami happend 2 days ago, there are so many star falling down the sky so he beleive when the str falling down so we should make a wish so he make a wish for earn more money and can catch more fish and shrimp...but the Tsunami come to their village and before the big wave , there is lack water in to the sea so u can see all fish and shirmp underground of the dry sea in 5 or 10 minute but after that the
water and big wave come over to destroy anything while people exciting to catch fish in dry sea...... there are so many ghost story around us such people die immediately so everyplace to go people start to tell the ghost real story so i will not tell u such i scare also...u can not imagine that i wear 3 budha statue arouund my neck and i got the thing for protection of ghost and every place that i sleep so i pray for them that I will go to temple and donate thing for them so please do not make me scare or let me see them hah a byt the way we have the met the situation such we are 3 of women go but when we order food so they always give us 4 glasses hah a some of spirit come with us so
i will go to the temple soon on this friday and pray for let them feel peace....

i hope my report still have something to make u think but i still see world so funny idea but all i say ..is real and i still busy and if u want to know more detail.. come here to talk with me and i will let u
laugh with mhy true story of my big adventure...

ok too long story and miss u all and hope u all send loving to me such i feel warm althoug the one who come with us in the trip that we can not see still try to supprt me ...
ha ha ha ha
nong ka xxxx

---

Photos are coming.. I swear. I've taken some of my school and of the area surrounding my school.. I just need to get them off my camera. Where's my camera...

The White Safety

I've been trying to write an update for about two days now, and I just keep getting side-tracked, so though it's getting close to midnight, and I've got to be up at 6:30... I'm going to do this damnit.

So what's new, what's new... Oh, right! I officially started my classes. I went to school all nervous and hyped bright and early monday morning to discover that the kids still had their regular school classes and didn't start their winter holiday until today. In case I didn't mention it - our school is a private English school, so the kids come to our classes on top of their regular school.

Anyway, my schedule got all shifted around, classes got changed, and now I'm teaching an adult class of college folks three times a week, which is just awesome. Mostly I just hang out and chat with them. We have a book of topics and stuff... but it's real informal and a load of fun. Tomorrow I'm bringing in some music for them to listen to. I want it to be Canadian.. but I'm leaning towards Jack Johnson... I just dunno.

Classes are getting easier and easier as I find my groove. You start getting a feel for pacing, how long you should spend on certain parts, etc. The tricky part comes in making it interesting... and I'm still working on doing that and not just relying on games of Typhoon (sorta like tic-tac-toe but more complicated and more competative... and less stale mates).

I was starting to worry that with limited exposure to other foreigners I might be lacking in the social department, but yesterday I got invited over to one of the Chinese teacher's (our teacher assistants) houses during Spring Festival and today my TA invited me over to her house so her mom could make me dumplings. Her name is, get this, Strawberry. See... imagine going to a country and being able to pick your name... and it could be anything... we'd all pick cool names right? We certainly wouldn't choose Bob or something in another language... we'd choose something that means "Strong Like Bull" or "The Most Amazing Person In The World" or something... well... that's how some Chinese people pick their English name. Many rely on foreigners who choose decidedly simple "Steven", "Ted", "Sam" etc. But sometimes the Chinese person gets creative and gives themselves their name... and you get Strawberry.. or my personal favourite so far - Iceburg. Big and cool, right.

What was I saying? Oh right, social life... so yeah, I've also got a party going on this weekend in Dalian - one of the guys from my training class is putting it together - and I've got the weekend off, so, yeah. And I've been getting somewhat chummy with Maggie, one of the receptionists at the school... and I might see if she wants to catch a movie or something sometime. So... maybe I'll not be sitting alone in my apartment freezing for much longer.

Oh. I bought I guitar today. It's crap, but it was cheap. I paid 210 yuan for it, which is about $30 CND.

Also, as some may have noticed, I've been changing things on the blog quite a bit - trying to sort out what I like and what I don't. If something isn't working right or looks really lame, lemme know. I know I promised some photos, but my batteries in my camera were dead when I went to take some shots... so tomorrow... I swear. But I did add some maps in the sidebar so you can see where I am.

One last thing... I think some people read this and feel it's communication with me... it's not! E-mail me damnit. I don't mean to whinge about it... but aside from the standards (Cass and porn spam) I get very few e-mails... so in case you're not sure if I mean you by this... if you're reading this, you should be e-mailing me. Tell me what's going on with you, mundane details are great, give me opinions on things, tell me about your rash... I don't care.

Alright - bedtime.

Hello Teacher

Right, so I figured that today I'd just go in to the school, chill out, maybe sit in on one of Tom's classes and get a feel for the whole thing... but a sickly Matthew last evening put a kink in that.

As there is only five foreign teachers at the Jinzhou school, and I'm the only one that wasn't working today - when Matthew called in sick, it sort of fell on me to cover for him. I'm beginning to think that the Great Energy Source has it in for me and just likes to see what happens when I'm put to a challenge.

I only had to do a two hour class first thing this morning, which was stressful because it's all new - but otherwise went off well, then a 1/2 hour Child/Parent class with little kids (so cute) and a one hour class to wrap up the day. So, most of my day was spent sitting around and chatting with the receptionists.

The kids are good by and by... and I think I'll find my groove soon enough. The 2 hour class first thing was difficult, but after I remembered that there was lesson plans in one of the books I had been given during orientation - the rest all fell together.

But brutally, I am filling in tomorrow as well - for a full 9 hour day. Then Monday sees me starting my standard 5-day work week... so seven days at a new job with no break. Fun.

Putting aside the whole "responsible for the English speakers of tomorrow" bit, the job isn't so difficult and I've got a teacher's assistant, who is Chinese and makes it quite a bit easier to deal with the kids (and makes a handy prop).

My schedule has me working with a range of kids aging from about 8 to 13 or so. By the end of the day I did everything in my power to stop myself from calling my Gr. 5 French teacher and offering to buy her a beer. I actually had to stop myself from saying "Tres bien!" instead of the much more English, "Very good!"

Well... I finally got a heating pad for my bed, and it works like a charm... time to go keep it company under all those covers. I've been told that a woman from the school is coming to put plastic over my window on Monday... not entirely sure it'll make much of a difference, but...

ATMs 15, Ryan 1

Whose got money? Oh, I'VE GOT MONEY!

That's right ladies and gentleman, after searching high and low, I went where I should have gone to begin with - my Lonely Planet guide book. Many people swear they suck, some swear they ruin the travelling experience, but those people have never been stuck in Jinzhou with a quickly dwindling loan from their school manager.

After my final day of orientation Sherry and I took a crazy taxi ride (though not quite as daring as the other day's ride... we were driving on the sidewalk on that one) across town to the Shangri-la Hotel, or more specifically the HSBC branch right beside it. The familiar HSBC logo raised my spirits and the big PLUS logo on top of the ATM made me nearly break down into tears of joy...

So with a mit full of yuan, we returned to the Dalian school and met the rest of the new teachers and all went out for a special dinner in traditional gut-busting style. Today's oddities included eating fried prawns (heads and all), fried spicy octopus (which was incredibly delicious - or hao chi) and something called a 10,000 Year Old Egg - but I swear... it tasted only 5,000 years old - marketing, I tell ya.

After dinner and promises to keep in touch with the other new teachers, Sherry and I headed to Carrefour and did a bit of shopping. I got myself a rice cooker and some various other things important to the apartment - but most significantly, I got some long underwear and some slippers...

I don't have very many photos yet (as it's so damn cold I never think to take my camera out) - but I did manage to get these:

This is Youhao Guangchang, or Friendship Square	Quickly looking up the street towards Zhongshan Square, my fingers are still thawing.
Currently my favourite purchase of the day.

Well... it's after one in the morning, which means MAYBE I'll be able to sleep later than 6:30 a.m.... so I guess I should be off to bed. I'm heading down to the school tomorrow, so I'll try to get some photos of it to give y'all an idea of where I'm working and who I'm working with.

Orient-ation

It's 7:30 a.m. and I'm just waiting for the water to warm up for my morning shower - sadly, though constantly reminding myself last night I forgot to turn on the water heater before bed.

I'm heading into my second day of orientation and yet another day of trying to track down access to my Canadian bank account. If I had had an inkling of knowledge that this would be so difficult (I think I've tried around 20 ATMs in Jinzhou and Dalian) I would have tried a lot harder to find an international ATM at one of the various airports I hit on my way here.

The training is neat, and is giving me loads of ideas on how to manage my classes as well as dispelling some of my fears. Meeting some of the other new teachers was good too, though somewhat useless as they are all in Dalian, and I'm a 40 minute taxi ride away.

Today I'm going to make use of my time in Dalian (and access to Carrefore[sp?] - sort of like Walmart) to buy a rice cooker, possibly a hotpot (see previous entry), some longjohns (have I mentioned how cold it is here?), and maybe some slippers.

I should also track down some new VCDs. Though the ones that came with the apartment were plentiful, they're a bit crap in the quality department - and for $0.60/VCD... I can't go too wrong.

Oh, I guess HOW I am going to buy these things if I can't access my bank account is a big question. After an exhausting trek around Dalian yesterday, I arrived back to Jinzhou to my school manager Sherry's sympathy. She gave me 800 kuai from my first month's salary (not usually paid until Feb. 10) to get me by and then took me out for a feast at a local restaurant. I discovered last night that she is the same age as me, though she insists that she is OLDER as she was born in January.

Alright - I think the water is warm. If not I'll either freeze to the bathroom floor or be the unpopular student at training today. Wish me luck.

Dag Yo, I'm In Jinzhou!

As mentioned, I've successfully made it to China - and have been "stationed" in a small city just outside of Dalian called Jinzhou (pronounced jin-joe, sorta).

My last few days getting accustom to everything here has been a bit daunting, but taken in good form none the less. I left FAR too late from Chris and Jeremy's house on Friday morning (damn journal posting!) but thankfully caught a cab without too much hassle and headed to the MUNI station, then the BART station and got to the airport at 1:04 p.m., with my flight at 1:35, I was a bit concerned.

Rustling up a zen-like acceptance, I went to the check-in counter and asked if I was too late. She checked and with a good amount of surprise said I wasn't, that they were still bording, but said she'd have to rush me through the security line (cool). I was pushed to the head of the line and then waited while the rest of the line behind me trickled passed (not so cool). Apparently my ticket had SSSS printed on it and that means RANDOM SECURITY CHECK. Honestly.

So about 20 minutes and a pat down that should have required dinner first by the security official I was waved down by a woman asking if I was Mr. McLaughlin... and then told to get my ass to the gate, the ENTIRE plane was waiting for me. Let me tell ya, I've never felt so special.

I got onboard, praying that my luggage was as lucky - especially when the captain made a special announcement (which seemed specifically directed at me) that he was sorry for the delay but because of some late no-shows, some luggage had to be taken off the plane.

Accepting that I had no ability to sort the problem out then and there, I nestled in for my 12 hour flight. Four movies, two meals, some beer, wine and pretzels later I touched down in Beijing. After a infinite wait in line at the customs counters I found my luggage and carried on to my flight to Dalian. Where as there was a good number of laowai (foreigners) coming from San Francisco, it was just me and a sea of Chinese heading to Dalian - regardless, the flight went well and touching down I quickly located two smiling individuals with a sign that read: AES/Future School.

In a series of events that happened far too fast for my well-sleepy mind to properly discern, I was swept into a small van, thrown a bag of McDonald's burgers and a small orientation kit (complete with muffins and milk) and trucked to Jinzhou. En route David (the city manager for the school) filled me in on some of the details, but being new to the job was not certain on some things - but it was good to have a Western face to bounce questions off in those first few hours.

After a bit of cell-phone debate we found our way to my new home and met up with my manager, Sherry, there. She is Chinese, but speaks solid English and is quite nice. Hiking up to the 7th floor with all my luggage we were greeted by my roommate Tom, a New Zealander at the tail end of his 6 month contract.

After a bit of chit-chat the entourage left and Tom and I got acquainted as he showed me the ins and outs of our place (ie. how the toilet works, etc.).

The following morning (for everyone here at least - to me it was more like the night before... damn jetlag) Sherry met me at the appartment and we walked the 20 minute trek to the school. Located on a pedestrian street (no cars), the school is two floors in a building above various merch shops. I haven't had a great tour of the classes or anything yet, but have been given a desk in the teachers' office and met much of the staff.

At about noon I was invited to a wedding. Yup, leave it to me to stumble my way into a wedding my first day in a foreign country. Actually the ceremony was over, but I got to experience a full-on Chinese reception, complete with singing, drinking and FOOD (so that's what sea cucumber tastes like). The two people getting married were two Chinese teaching assistants at the school, so there were a bunch of us western teachers there, and it was a load of fun.

Tom, Matthew Brandon and Matthew Gordon.

The bride and groom (in the middle) doing a traditional shot of booze with guests.

Around this time I also got introduced to my two neighbours - Matthew and Matthew; two Brits also teaching at the school. Between Matt, Matt, Tom and myself we make up all the English teachers at the school - so it's quite a tight knit group. Tom only teaches on the weekends and spends most his week in Dalian with his girlfriend there, so I imagine that I'll be seeing a lot of my neighbours.

After the wedding I returned to the apartment and when Tom got home he showed me around the neighbourhood. Initially when we drove up to my apartment I was worried that Jinzhou was just a sea of apartment buildings with very little support (shopping, restaurants, etc.) making it a pretty boring place to live - but in daylight I was shown wrong. Within walking distance there are a number of restaurants, markets, a grocery store, a music shop, DVD/VCD shops, etc. And better that, all cabs in Jinzhou are a fixed rate of 8 kuai (or yuan) or about the equivilant of a buck.

I met up with M&M at dinner time and we hopped into a taxi and they took me out to eat at a local hotpot restaurant. Hotpot is a delicious way of traditional Chinese cooking where in the middle of your table is a pot with a flame under it. The pot is filled with seasoned water (spicy on one side and not spicy on the other). You then order various meat and veg, which you place in the boiling water for a bit to cook it and then you pull it out and either eat it with rice or dip it first into a savoury peanut sauce.

After dinner we headed back to thier apartment to sip some beer (like 2 kuai, or $0.25 a bottle) and watched a pirated copy of The Shield (US and British TV series are somewhat un-difficult to get here via pirated means, as are most recently released - to theatres - movies).

Yesterday Tom and I hung around the apartment until about 2 p.m. and then he took me down to a local market where I could buy virtually any sort of meat I wanted (including, donkey, sea ray, dog, giant prawns, turtle, etc.) as well as chili peppers (I'll be able to make some Thai dishes!). We then went down to the school so he could pick up his pay and I could figure out the plan to get to Orientation in Dalian tomorrow with Sherry. One thing I forgot to mention is that in the made dash from the airport I neglected to obtain any Chinese money, but thankfully Sherry leant me 200 kuai and I was able to exchange $15 US yesterday at a local bank. It would seem that none of the local ATMs will accept my bank card, but a quick check of the Net showed me the location of not less than 15 ATMs in Dalian that accept PLUS cards - so that's top of my list of things to do while in the city for orientation tomorrow.

Returning home Tom and I grabbed some dinner at a restaurant in our little complex of buildings, the waitress there was very nice and though she doesn't speak much English, I think it will be a reasonably comfortable experience going there without Tom - it helps that he wrote down for me some dishes to ask for.

Tom's off to Dalian shortly, and I'll be left to myself in our nice, albeit freezing apartment (the radiators are all controlled by a master switch somewhere, and I guess the warm water, like me, has a difficult time getting to the top floor of this building - the price you pay to live in the penthouse... hahaha). I am going to grab some candles today and see if that helps to warm the place, I am grateful that I brought some blankets with me - not just to cover the cold, but to cover the god-aweful pink comforter that I've been provided with.

Before

After

The apartment is a great size and has awesome acoustics (high ceilings) for playing guitar - of which Tom has, so I'll be using his until I decide to fork out the 200 kuai for my own (honestly... that's like $15... absolutely ridiculous). I don't start classes until next Monday, so I have loads of time to further get accustom to life here, but it's shaping up to be quite an adventure and I'm already loving it. The language is a challenge, but I'm working on it - and I think the lessons will definitely help. Plus Tom and the Matthews are both reasonably fluent, so that will help too.

Living Room	Kitchen
My bedroom, a bit sparse, but I have a bed, a desk and a nice big window.	And a wardrobe... sounds so posh.

Oh! And on yet another positive note - my GameCube works like a charm. Thank god for that, I was quite worried it was going to be the bulkiest, most expensive paperweight I've ever had the poor luck of travelling with.

Soundsapound

Alright, I've not much time on here, but I just wanted to quickly say that I did indeed make it to the airport in SF (a feet that questions the validity of our space-time continuem) and have survived the flight to China.

I'm in my new home, Jinzhou (or is it Jinzhuo...), a "small" city just outside of Dalian (small in China is a VERY different term than it is in the rest of the world...this place is huge). I'm at the school I'll be teaching it. I just got back from a wedding (of all things) and am about to head back to my flat and await for my roomie to get home and show me around the area.

I've no money as ATMs that accept my card are all in Dalian - thankfully my manager, Sherry, has lent me 200 yuan (like $25) so I can eat until Wednesday, when I'll be in Dalian for orientation and can grab some cash.

So yeah, safe and sound. No worries.

Not San Fran... nono... THE City.

Well, I've about 10 minutes before I book it out the door, find a cab down the hill and get wisked off to the MUNI station, to the BART station, to the airport (the hip bone is connected to the...) and I figured I'd do one last entry on this side of the Pacific.

San Francisco has been amazing. I got here around noon on Wednesday after an early morning goodbye and a few cups of coffee with my Aunt Beth. The flights were straight-forward (if not down and to the left a little) and I had no problems with customs, deciding at the last moment to balk the advice to bring herbs and spices that I might like to use in China that they don't have there - namely oregano... I just figured, why push my luck?

Loaded with my bags I found my way down town to Christena's work and dumped my bags, With some quick basic instructions she told me where best to wander and I spent about four hours randomly walking around China Town of all places. I also hit Market Street, got myself the Garden State soundtrack. All the soggier, I returned to her office at 5 and we went back to her and her boyfriend Jeremy's apartment - where my 4 a.m. start-time caught up to me and I fell asleep watching Friends until Jeremy came home at about 8 and we headed to a Taqureia (read: Taco Bell if Taco Bell was hip, really ethnic and good tasting) and a local bar for a quick drink.


The City Lights Bookstore is famous as a hangout for the beat-icons Kerouac and Ginsberg and has just a LOAD of great books - sadly what they had stores of in books, I lacked in money.


This is some corporate building - Trans... something.


On Market St. - I had thought that buildings like this would be rare... I was wrong. Decidedly San Franciscan though.

My hosts live at the base of Twin (frigin'!) Peaks, which is just too cool for words, ah, with the exception of those that I've just wrote, and these... It's by the Castro District... and what's with all these rainbow flags? :-) Yes, Castro is largely the "gay" area, but they tolerate us straight people.


Pride

So, with some planning advice from Jeremy, I woke up yesterday morning ready to face a world full of rain - but was pleasantly surprised with the pile of sunshine that lay outside the apartment window. Cursing myself for ignorantly sleeping in (I thought it was going to be a wet and miserable day) I hopped in the shower and headed down to the MUNI station to head into town. After departing the station it dawned on me that I had forgotten my wallet back at the apartment, but thankfully I had $100 CND on me that I swiftly transfered to fuel my touristy ways.


How tight can chains be pulled man!


ALCATRAZ!


That's Coit Tower in the background.



Getting on a cable car (I like trolley better) I took it across town to Fisherman's Wharf, where I caught my ferry to Alcatraz! For $16 you get a round-trip ferry ride to the island and an audio tour of the Cellhouse. Another bonus was a guest author that was on The Rock signing his book about his time at Alcatraz - that's right, I've met a real live ex-inmate of the infamous penatentury.










Known as Broadway by the cons.


Capone's cell - allegedly.


The monster in the back.


The yard.


Nice view... but I wouldn't want to live there.




The thing that looks like a monster, again.

The tour of the island took a couple hours and was great - totally worth the cash. Back on land I tried and failed to beat the sun and make it to Golden Gate Bridge, but not before joining a mass of tourists watching about a bazillion sea lions bark at each other while lying restfully in the Californian sun. Too cool.


Just lyin' about.




Try as he might, this guy could NOT stay onboard... he kept getting barked off.

So, after trying a bunch of times to find a bus up to the Golden Gate Bridge, I ended up walking most the way there - and so never actually got to see it up close. Tired, and admittedly beaten by the long trek, I scrapped it and found a bus to the last stop on my whirlwind tour of SF - Haight Ashbury. The Haight Ashbury (two streets, for those that don't know) is sort of what Queen Street in Toronto would be if it was REALLY cool. The area is just loaded with little shops, music stores, Thai food restaurants and various other things you find on a street (homeless people, a guy asking me if I wanted herb - and I am reasonably certain he hadn't heard of my opting out of bringing oregano).


These rocks are all just balanced somehow. I saw the guy doing it, but was on my way to GGB and didn't want to stop for a lengthly explanation.


As close as I got. Sigh.


Bit better of a shot.



I spent about an hour wandering around Ameba, a HUGE music store, where I contemplated buying about 30 CDs.. and left with none. I then grabbed what I figure will be my last North American meal for a while - pizza - and headed back to the apartment.

When Jeremy got done work Chris and I picked him up down the street and they took me to an Irish pub called Phoenix where I had a pint of Guinness and a Boxty (a potatoe pancake with good stuff on top), my hosts' gracious treat. I mean honestly, these people put me up for two days and then take me out for dinner? Anyone that fears there is not kindness in the world, look no further than Globalfreeloaders.com, you will find it.


My two, too awesome, hosts and new friends Jeremy and Chris.

So... now here I am, 12 minutes past my scheduled departure time... and not certain if the cab will be pissed about only taking me a few blocks, but it's raining and a ways down a hill. Anyway, I just got word from Dalian and the school does indeed have an apartment ready for me, so this next day of travel should be pretty breezy, I just get on my planes, get picked up at the Dalian airport and taken right to my apartment... no worries.