Monopoly

We went to E's cafe again for the English Corner, but it was closed. So, we called and he asked us to come again in an hour - which we did. There were just a few boys there, so we opened up our Chinese monopoly game and taught it to them. They got into the spirit of things and i think we've found a hit. There weren't nearly as many people there as last week. I'm not sure that they understood that we'd be doing this every week. Hopefully word will get around next week.

We haven't yet talked to him about renting his cafe, although we've thought about it quite a bit. If we do this, we might be doing it solo and we would like to be in partnership with someone. However, because we're so far away from the main campus and the city, that might not be a viable option for others. S. and i are still trying to sort through all the ramifications if we do this...

Grocery shopping in China

While L. was in class today, I went out shopping. The Carrefour, Trust-Mart, and Jusco markets are pretty neat. They're all 2-3 stories tall and have moving sidewalks that slant upwards. Shopping carts stick to these sidewalks without sliding back....done with magnets. Tissue packs, batteries, and drinks line the sides of the moving sidewalk, leaving no space unused for selling. Things are quite cheap in places; a bunch of fresh, leafy veggies cost less than 1 rmb (12 US cents)!

One drawback to shopping here is the transportation. I have to go by bus or taxi. Carrefour and Trust-Mart send out free buses all over the area, including our XM campus, to pick people up every hour. But I can only buy what I can carry in one trip. There's no filling up my car trunk to unload in multiple trips from the home driveway, since I have no car. Even if I did, it's a six-flight stairway walk to our flat. Here, I make sure I don't overbuy to where that I can't carry it all. Hmmm....maybe that's not such a bad thing after all....

News has been reporting about the KMT's visits to China. A significant development in cross-strait relations with Taiwan that has this country's media riveted.

Where did Spring go?

Yesterday was quite warm and very humid, which made it quite uncomfortable. (I will never understand, tho', how so many people feel the need to wear long sleeves and jackets.) Today is much better, not as humid, but still warm.

We picked up our tickets for Shanghai yesterday. Our family is coming over in two weeks and we'll be meeting them there and all of us coming back to GZ after a few days.

Last night's class went well. More students than last week, including a new student. We went through lessons 3-6. I tried playing the mp3's that I downloaded from "ESL Gold" on my computer, but it wasn't loud enough and we couldn't get the classroom sound system to work. Students asked to go over long, hard-to-pronounce words more thoroughly, like "photographer" and “secretary". The "ch" in "mechanic", "cherry", and "machine" threw them a bit --- my only explanation to this: "It's English". We took 5-10 minute breaks every hour....good thing, since my voice gets hoarse fast. Fortunately, a student was gracious enough to fetch me water. We played Hangman again, but this time on my computer. It was a little tough, since the categories were limited, and countries was about the only thing we could do. Maybe we'll try bingo next week.

The university has given us a room on the main campus for the nights that I teach and (if we call ahead) any other nights that there might be events on the main campus (i.e. Jazz Concerts, etc.) since there is no shuttle after 5:30 p.m. So, we stayed here last night.

This morning, L. did some laundry (they have a dryer here, very exciting for her) and I taught piano to the boys (M and S) of the other JHF family here.

We went to the library later to read some mags. They had "U.S. News and World Report" as well as "Time" magazine on their shelves. It's probably the only place in Guangzhou that carries them. It was nice to be able to read them.

Easter

Not surprisingly, L. and I woke up this morning not feeling all that great (thanks to last night's hot pot). We barely stumbled into fellowship at GICF. Lots of singing, lots of praise choruses and hymns giving honor to Christ's resurrection. The speaker gave a sermon on Matthew 28. We later had lunch with the church, sharing a table with some Nigerian and Congolese brothers. We watched a play and song performance put on by the Sunday School children...but we left early, the quesiness in our stomachs just too much.

The taxi took us a long, but faster, way back. The driver said there was a couple of conventions and didn't want to get caught in traffic. We were too sick to contest his advice, so we let him. He took a toll bridge to get there. It was indeed faster, but the ride cost rmb 70. A usual ride is around RMB 40-50. He came across more pleasant and friendly than most drivers we encounter, even trying to make conversation with us. But we couldn't help but feel a bit snookered by him. Of course, we had no way to disbelieve him, but even if we did, we weren't in any shape to argue, so we paid the 70 and went home. And as if things couldn't get worse, the power was out when we got back.

After a 4-hour nap, I felt better. By then, the power had come back on. L., however, felt worse after her nap. Not only was her stomach not fully functional, but her cold and sinus infection still hadn't subsided. After watching "David Letterman" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (L. enjoys this show, but it's not for me), we went back to bed.

Hoping this was just a weekend bug...

Hot pot too hot for our pots

Yesterday, our friend from England, J., and his girlfriend, C., stopped by for a visit. We watched "Trading Places" and then went into town for dinner. They took us to a hot-pot restaurant that they enjoyed. It was quite spicy, with Szechuan peppers and the like, but quite tasty overall. Fortunately, we also ordered some yogurt to act as extinguishers.

On the way home, it became apparent to me that something wasn't agreeing with my stomach. Same with L. Let's just say we frequented the bathroom throughout that night. It was probably some meat that wasn't fully cooked. Sleep that night was difficult to come by.

Our 6th month anniversary

L. had to teach this morning, but we celebrated by going to the same Brazilian restaurant we went to for my b'day. This was dinner, so we had a live music played by a 3-person Brazilian bandgroup.

After dinner we walked to the subway station and went to a 3-self church for the Good Friday service. It was in progress when we arrived, around 7:30 pm. The church was dark, save a few dim lights. We sang several hymns, including "The Wondrous Cross". The Chinese hymns were very beautiful. The congregation's voices echoed warmly throughout the old church's walls. A couple of young women prayed, at times choking back tears, leading the church in confessional prayers, remembering and praising Jesus for his various sufferings, and quoting John 3:16. A man, presumably a pastor, encouraged everyone to be lights to the world in their faith. A choir later left, carrying lit candles. The church was full, tho' not overflowing. Not a bad turnout, tho', for a service on a weekday right after work for most people. It was mostly filled with young people in their 20's, I'd say. Both of us were touched by the sincerity of the service. It was entirely in Chinese, but hearts can be stirred despite the language barrier.

English Corner at the cafe

One of L's students from last year bought a space behind our campus and turned it into a coffee shop. However, business has been floundering since most Chinese don't believe in having coffee at night, so most of the students are eager for alcohol rather than coffee. L. believes it's a great place for folks to study as well as hang out, especially since there is absolutely nothing around here by way of recreational activity for these students. She was hoping to do something like that this year, and after hearing about E's cafe, was ecstatic. We've agreed to help him by basically being his PR. Folks will come in droves if that gives them an opportunity to speak to a native English speaker in order to improve their English. Today was the first "English Corner" to see how we'd do. L. agreed to make a few "western" snacks to give them the idea of how a coffee house in America is set up. It was actually for yesterday, but there was a conflicting event and we decided to move it to "Thursday" from "Wednesday"

So, this afternoon E. called and said he advertised an English corner for tonight. For tonight! We ended up scrambling to fix snacks to sell at the café. E. came by to help, as well as get more food. We made some quesadillas, Indian cookies, chips, sandwiches, and French toast strips.

We walked there around 6 pm. Not more than 5 minutes after we arrived, college students started arriving. As the evening drew on, the café was bustling with over 25 students! We talked about everything from how we met, getting citizenship in different countries, marriage, romance, our backgrounds, reasons for going to school, differences between life in America and China, NBA basketball, importance/unimportance of money, meaning of being content, and "Fahrenheit 9/11". After a break for drinks and snacks, Lima and I found ourselves split into separate groups talking. The group of girls I talked with asked me about my thoughts on China and Taiwan. Even though I shared with them some of my hesitation discussing politically sensitive topics, they welcomed it. We had a good time talking about it.

We talked until 10 pm. After the students left, E. talked with us about ideas for the future. Few people bought the snacks or had drinks, which presents a problem business-wise. L. and I talked about possibly renting the place for him just to keep it open so we can do more English corners and sell some food there. Our presence as foreigners are a BIG attraction. We definitely see opportunities here. The café suffers from being remote from the campus. We'll see things work themselves out. I talked with one guy who used to be L's student from last year. He mentioned that he was a fish. I told him that we were fishes as well and he said "that makes us brothers and sisters".

Monsoon season

We spent most of the day doing household chores. While doing laundry, the sky grew ominously hazy, then dark. Rain came down in buckets, sending students studying on the grass field below running frantically for cover. We could hear them yelling as they were running. It was quite the downpour! We quickly brought the hanging laundry in. Water leaked through our windows in the computer room, which we contained using plastic pans. Thunder and lightning filled the dark clouds. Strong wind blew through the campus. The storm ended in about half-hour, followed by clear skies and sun. That only lasted for about 2-3 hours, at which the clouds, wind, and rain came again. This went off and on about 3-4 times throughout the day and into the evening.

L. and I tried out our walkie-talkies for the first time. With AA batteries costing but rmb 1 for 4 of them, it'd be a cheap way to keep in touch over short distances. The TV reception went out, so we spent the rest of the evening watching "Ice Age" and other DVDs, while working on the computer. And cleaning up after the storms that blew in throughout the day.

ESL "Hangman"

Tonight's class went well. Didn't overwhelm the students as much this time. The material off http://www.eslgold.com was better for the new students. Jordan helped out a lot copying the material. I made up a worksheet laying out the English alphabet, along with each letter's pronunciation in pinyin, how they're used (or not used) in pinyin, and how they're used in English. In the last half-hour, we played "Hangman" using simple words, which seemed a hit with the students. They'd never seen this game before. I'll have to find some more games....looks like a good way to learn.

Visiting a 3-self church

We decided to fellowship at the 3-self church today. S. hasn't been there yet and wanted to check it out. It's quite a hike from where we are, in terms of public transportation, and probably very expensive by taxi. Of course, we opted for public transportation. We took the 523 bus to a busy area and took a taxi from there to the nearest subway station. From our destination subway stop, the church is about a 20 minute walk.

As we came closer to the building, we could hear the sweet strains of "Lord, I Lift Your Name On High" in English. If you don't get there early enough, it's pretty touch to find seating, it's always packed out. As we arrived, people were standing at the entrance, waiting to be seated once the singing was over. The service was conducted in Chinese with English translation. The Scripture reading was from Isaiah 53, highlighting Jesus' suffering and also drawing parallels with Job's.

After the sermon, there is usually a time of personal testimony that is set ahead. Miss L. shared about her struggles and frustrations in finding a job. She'd sent 60 resumes, with no response. She would cry every night and question her worth, but gave it up to God. She eventually found a job that has her working 13 hours a day. (Seems a bit too long for a daily quota). She drew her talk to a close saying that speeches are like mini-skirts; the shorter, the better. (Interesting!)

S. wanted to stay for the 2-4 pm BS, but I was still pretty sick, so we went home.

Later that evening, S. went to meet some other guys for English BS with some teachers. I stayed home and rested.

Chinese b'day party

If you were at our wedding in Boston, you might have met one of our friends, J., from England. He visited last year, met one of my students, a lovely girl, and has been in a relationship with her for the last year.

Anyway, he decided to come to GZ to celebrate this b'day this year. It was good to see J. again and catch up, since we weren't able to at the time of the wedding. C., his girlfriend, organized the party and invited about 30 people there. We were introduced to many of her friends, mostly women in their early 20's. Although, i think J. S. and I were the only ones who spoke English. A couple "games" were played, we were surprised how much was loaded with sexual innuendo.

I was not feeling well (been sick for a couple days now), and we decided to call it a night around midnight. C. bargained a cab for us and we came right home.

Happy Birthday, J.

Jazz!?

Our university is part of a team to promote cultural interaction and frienship through fine arts, in the city of GZ. So during the course of the year, we have several concerts by pianists, guitarists, orchestras, etc. Today was a jazz concert.

We took the shuttle from our campus to the main one, where the concert hall is located, and had a couple hours to kill before the actual concert. So, we decided to have dinner at a Hunan restaurant where i am good "friends" with one of the waitresses. The weather was somewhat agreeable, so we decided to eat outside. As we were finishing our meal, all the restaurants that had tables outside started folding their tables up, as did our restaurant. Turns out the "gong an" were making their rounds. They parked their truck in front of our restaurant and waited impatiently for the staff to put everything away, including our table. We weren't quite done, but they started putting away our table, all the time apologizing to us. S. continued to finish off the rice in his bown as we stood there watching the scene. We got a RMB 3 discount on our tab for the trouble. First the Banana Lady, now this... Black Market Parking Lots?

We walked to the campus auditorium for the jazz concert, picked up our tickets which put us at the very back of the balcony - the nosebleed section. The jazz combo was a univeristy group from Oklahoma. After they gave a 10+ song performance, a few university students gave music performances on Chinese and band instruments. It ended rather awkwardly.....the last performance (which sounded akin to a junior high marching band) should've been a warm-up to the main attraction. Welcome to China.

Tonight's TV break:

Sesame Street

Pinky and the Brain

"Fight Club" on the Pearl Channel

And now the news...buy our goggles to make you taller!

I completed the first 3 lessons for the Monday's Beginning English class and sent them to Jordan. This ESL Gold website is great!

L. is feeling a bit under the weather. We both have scratchy throats and have been sneezing, but it's been hitting L. harder.

We watched "60 Minutes", featuring reports on Enron and Ken Lay, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the Islam-critical movie "Submission", and George Lucas' final "Star Wars" movie (all with Chinese subtitles). We finished with the local news and "Late Night With David Letterman". ATV World broadcasted all this....I guess they're a CBS affiliate of sorts. "Pearl" might be an ABC affiliate of sorts.

The local English-language news, broadcast from Hong Kong, gets reports that China will censor at its discretion. This is done by airing a "half-eaten" commercial suddenly in the start of a controversial news report and abruptly returning back to the news when the station feels the report is over. Curious, funny, irritating at the same time. The infomercials I mentioned earlier this month are also useful in blocking out certain content, which makes some sense....I can't imagine these informercial items being that popular that they need to broadcast them in daytime hours. But I also learned that what's blocked out is not necessarily censorship. I heard from one of the students that this may also be a way to keep people from seeing certain programs that require additional payment (since our reception is cable).

Sniff, sniff...aachoo!

I've been sneezing all day for some reason. Maybe the warming weather is having an effect? It remained pretty foggy the whole day.

I spent most of the day working on new teaching material for Monday's class, while L. went off to teach. I found a great website, ESL Gold that has much of what I'm looking for, including simple dialogues and mp3 recordings.

We watched Dallas and Minnesota play NBA ball, with Chinese commentators in the background. Minnesota won.

A couple of students from L.'s class last year dropped by. They looked through our wedding photos. Since there were many pictures of the church L. and I were married in, one of them asked if I was a Christian, which I affirmed.

"Sesame Oil Street"

I got up early this morning, 6 am, to catch Creflo Dollar's "World Changers" show on TV. I still can't believe this show is airing here in China!

I flipped between that and children's shows teaching kids to honor their parents, be a good citizen, do well in school, and practice good hygiene. It might've seemed corny at first, but I see a lot of positive in this type of programming. The U.S. could do well to reproduce it. "Sesame Street" and "Mister Rogers" don't provide as comprehensive and succinct a message on these matters as the kid shows here in China, IMHO. U.S. kid shows seem to focus more on individual self-esteem, fun, and happiness, and not as much on positive interactions with family, school, and society at large. Just my observations, tho'.

first day of work

S. taught his first class here. It's every Monday night for two and a half hours. I accompanied him to provide some support, although he didn't need any, he was great.

Here's his perspective:

Teaching went well, tho' the students knew less English than I expected. Some knew none at all. We went around assigning English names to each person. We went through the worksheets i had prepared earlier. Some students helped set up the AV so that my computer could be plugged into it. It was a good thing, as having the computer helped a lot. We took a couple of breaks during the 2.5 hours of class. L. sat in the back to prepare for her lessons. One student, calling himself "Jordan" (he's an admirer of Michael Jordan) offered to be my monitor and help make copies of lessons for students to study in the future. One student asked if I could use less Chinese and more English, but other students asked me to use more Chinese and have someone help translate. It's going to be a tough balance, but it's looking like I'll have to cater to the lowest common denominator and "dumb" the curriculum down to pre-pre-school level almost, hoping those who know English better will appreciate practicing how to pronounce what they know better. Otherwise, those more advanced may be better off in the intermediate class.

So next week, I will need to find/develop material that's much, much simpler than what I used today (even tho' it, too, was for beginners). Vocabulary and dialogue will be a good start.

weekend in Chaozhou

The university sponsored a foreign teacher weekend trip to the city of Chaozhou, it's pretty close to the eastern coast of China. We left Friday afternoon and got back tonight. It was a very touristy trip - i.e. leaving the hotel early in the morning and catching as many "sites" as possible before heading back. They don't allow for much "rest and relaxation" during these trips. Which is fine, because you do get to see a lot of stuff in very short time.

Quick recap of the trip: We arrived fairly late Friday night. The driver was being quite cautious as the weather was very wet getting there. The company that acted as our tour guide set up dinner at a restaurant that seemed closed for business by the time we arrived. Most of us went and grabbed something else to eat after we were dropped off at the hotel

Saturday: It was cold and wet the entire day. Not a very good day for siteseeing - but we did anyway. Breakfast was very traditional (no pancakes here), but pretty filling and good - especially considering the meal before. S. loved it - all the Chinese "fun stuff" that he doesn't ge to have very often.

We visited many memorials and other sites preserved from the "old" Chaozhou city. Another feature quite common in many Chinese tours is Buddhist temples. Many people burn incense to one or more statues housed there.

(Funny story: at one point the batteries for our digicam were running out, so S. stopped by a couple vendors and bought a few more - both of whom sold him bum batteries. We think that the vendors or whoever they got batteries from just retrieved old batteries and repackaged them. Another foreign teacher also got bum batteries. Grrrr! Hopefully, it's only a Chaozhou thing and not a GZ thing. Unfortunately, we could not take as many pictures with the digital camera as we would've liked.)

We also visited a tea-drinking place, where they showed how to make, serve, and drink different kinds of tea Chaozhou-style. We stopped by a ceramics factory. Chaozhou prides itself in being the ceramics capital of China. It's also known for making toys and wedding garments. We bought several small porcelain cups as gifts and souvenirs.

We went back to the hotel after dinner. It was nicer to be back inside where it was warm and dry.

Sunday: Due to the weather, we didn't get to visit as many places that our tour guide had planned (which was fine with us - we were all ready to go home - but not fine with the guide). So we had to make up a couple sites from Saturday and the Sunday sites as well.

We left our room, returned our card key, ate breakfast, and boarded the bus. It was darn cold today! 10 Celsius, with humidity and breeze to boot. Spring is only days away, but it sure doesn't feel like it. At least it wasn't rainy.

We stopped by the Phoenix Pagoda (?) Temple, which has three stories, each containing a shrine to some famous Chaozhou historical hero. The top one, which looked like a scared green goblin, was reportedly a god for good grades and school studies. Some men below were selling rides on horses.

Later, we went to the Kaiyuan Temple. It's one of the most famous temples in Guangdong. The smell of incense was suffocating. Many folks worshipped there, mostly elderly women. Some were chanting and walking slowly in front of some Buddha statues. There must've been 50 statues of all sizes there. The biggest ones were situated three-in-a-row and were painted gold, as were many of the idols. Many tourists crammed into the temple. Most of them, Chinese, were there to pay homage to the idols, sometimes bowing to each one of them once. We were told that if a "prayer" is answered, the prayer-er must come back to this specific temple and thank the gods - some even come from overseas. WOW!

Next was a bicycle rickshaws ride through the old residential parts of downtown. Two persons per rickshaw, making an armade of 25+ rickshaws. It seemed like we were in a chariot race of some kind. A fun way to go through town. Halfway through, we stopped off to take some pictures. Amazingly, a few beggars (some even missing limbs) were able to keep up with us....how, we don't know.

Lunch was next, vegetarian and mostly consisting of soups. (Not a good idea before going on a road trip). We headed back to GZ after lunch, with a stop on the way at a "shopping center." This consisted of one large room with some very traditional "snacks," ex: fermented prunes, etc. Most of us weren't into shopping, instead we bought roasted sweet potatoes from a vendor outside the shop. He seemed very happy by the business.

We headed home soon after. There were several "potty breaks" - which was to be expected after serving three varieties of soups to fifty some people. Despite the weather, it was a really good trip as far as getting to know our colleagues better. Being on another campus, we don't really get to be regular part of the international teacher community on the main campus. So, trips and dinners and other events sponsored by the university for the foreign teachers is always a welcome opportunity to get to know other internationals affiliated with our university. What a variety!

"I am Batman!"

We lost a CD that has a bunch of wedding pictures taken by our Boston photographers. Thinking it might've been accidentally taken when our computer was being worked on, we called "M" our computer man to see if he could track down the Tietung broadband guy and see if he has it. "M" eventually came and called the broadband guy. Neither of them had it. Later, "M" found it under a stack we thought we had looked through. We were thrilled and relieved! "I am Batman!" Sam chuckled gleefully. We laughed, embarrassed by the whole thing and thanked him for coming. I like this guy "M".

We went to a restaurant near the main campus. We met a couple of waitresses who were quite friendly. They wanted to know all about where we were from and what we were doing in China. Neither of them spoke any English, but we got by with the little Chinese we knew. They asked us for English names. We called them "Faye" and "Lynn", the closest English counterparts of their names we could think of. They reminded me that it's International Women's Day today. I didn't know....thanks for the reminder! Happy Int'l Women's Day to all!

Creflo in China

This morning at 6 am, I got up to watch "Changing Your World" with Christian pastor and speaker Creflo Dollar. One display on the lower part of the screen was blurred out, but other than that, nothing else seemed obviously censored. It was mostly Bible teaching from Romans 8 and 12. I was quite surprised to see this kind of Christian programming here in China, but this was on ATV, too, so it might be only available in Guangdong.

the wrong bus!

Today was mostly staying at home and unpacking and cleaning some more. I've been craving some American food all day. After 3 weeks straight of jiao-zi (potstickers), noodles, fried rice...i just wanted a burger. S. was fine, but he obliged me (what a sweet man!). The only things "western" available around here are McDonalds and KFC - and since we don't do McDees, it was KFC.

S. wanted to take a bus, which was fine, since getting a taxi at this time from out here in Boonieville is impossible. There were a lot more accidents than we'd ever seen in such a short period of time, even in the U.S. We didn't see one accident all the time we were in India. Fortunately, most car accidents aren't the twisted carnage one might find in the US, probably because folks drive slower around here.

On the way back, we decided to save some money and take a bus as well. There are only two buses that stop by our campus (509 and 523). We saw a 523 and climbed aboard. Our campus is off of a little side road left of the main road. This bus shot right past the left turn and kept going straight, much to our (mine mostly) trepidation. The next stop, where we got off, was at least 2 km past the intersection and i had never been to this part of the city.

It was quite deserted at the bus stop, with a couple motorbike taxi guys hoping to provide a ride. We headed for a footbridge that would take us across the road and hopefully back to our campus. It was pretty late (around 10:00 p.m.) and very dark. On the other side of the bridge, there were a couple restaurants. On a whim, S. and I decided to explore (since we were there anyway and probably wouldn't come back)...we saw an entire alley of shacks selling everything from blankets to shoes. It was a whole 'nother - quite alive - world out there. I would have never guessed even just standing at the bus stop, a hundred feet away. This market was much more dirty and it was outdoors. We picked up a couple items because they were unbelieveably cheap. After walking about half way through the alley, i was done, but S. saw some blinking lights at the end that he was curious about, so we decided to walk the entire length of this place.

The "lights," we discovered, were decorations for karaoke bars. There were about 15 of them with no doors sitting right next to each other (i.e. sharing a wall), forming a giant "L" shape. It was horrendous! Incredibly dissonant sounds eminating from each bar as tone-deaf singers tried to drown their neighbors, in order to hear themselves. Stick 15 tone-deaf people in a room, all singing a different song, in Chinese, at the top of their lungs and it's close to what we heard that night. My ears are still ringing. (There's an oxy-moron: a tone-deaf Chinese. You'd think they'd be really good since Chinese is a tonal language.)

We took a taxi back. The whole thing (the bus ride and taxi) ended up costing more than had we just taken a taxi back. So much for "saving money" - but then again, we would have missed out on the karaoke bars.

Our Colleagues

This evening we had dinner with the rest of our "foreign" colleagues, hosted by the university. There are over 60 this year - quite a gathering. It was lovely colleagues who had become friends over the course of last year. We, along with another newlywed couple, were congratulated on our recent nuptials and presented with a gift. We also heard the clinkling of glasses suggesting we kiss - the other couple did (he was from the States and understood what the "clinkling" meant), but we didn't. I'm not sure everyone would have wanted to see that. It was interesting to hear what "clinkling" meant in other countries, for ex: in England, it meant asking for a speech, instead of a kiss. Well, anyway, i'm glad we did neither.

It was great to catch up with folks on their summer, previous semester and spring festival break... We'll have to start planning for our summer break...

Tonight's TV break:

NBA basketball, Houston vs. Washington

"60 Minutes" featuring American combat stress teams serving American soldiers in Iraq, connection between Howard Hughes and Richard Nixon, and Saudis fighting terrorists in Saudi Arabia.

"Just For Laughs"....a Canadian "Candid Camera" of sorts. We saw this show in India as well. A riot!

First day of classes

L. went to teach classes for her first day of work. I stayed home to clean hangers and wash dishes, while watching NBA game highlights. There don't seem to get a lot of live NBA games, instead just broadcasting possession-by-possession clips.

M. the computer guy, came by with a colleague to install DSL broadband - which didn't take. M. and I talked a bit about his work and school. He graduated from a university in Guilin, which is his hometown, and he's been in GZ only 3 months to do his job. When we initially met M, he seemed standoffish, but he's turned out to be a pretty nice guy. He watched NBA basketball with us, while his colleague was trying to install the broadband connection. L. was yelling enthusiastically at the game as usual....she’s more of a fan than anyone I've ever known (so cool :-). M's favorite team is the Minnesota Timberwolves and his fave player is Kevin Garnett. He taught us how to say some of the players' names in Chinese (Michael Jordan's last name sounds like "fried egg" --- "chao dan". He seems impressed that I once worked for Microsoft. He thinks I could get a job easily here and pointed me to some local websites. If only I could read Chinese. He'd like to get better at his English, he says, if he had more money.

L.'s classes (she had three today) are made up mostly of women. One class has only 2 men out of 30-40 students. If the one-child policy and families' desire to have boys over girls has indeed created a shortage of women that the news reports, it sure ain't obvious here at XM (the name of our campus)!

Still cold, still dreary, still overcast. No end in sight, it seems. :-P

...wear space-age goggles to make you taller!

I thought American media had gone infomerical-crazy....some of the Chinese TV channels, for an entire morning, broadcast infomercials selling lotions that enlarge breasts, whiten skin, remove age spots, pills & racks & space-age goggles (I kid you not) to make people grow taller, straighten spines, and electronic devices that strap around waists to trim fat. One informacial showed a woman interviewing 3 men asking if they prefer women with white skin or dark skin. They all said they prefer white skin, which, of course, is why women should "buy their product". The "before/after" shots of the women's faces would've been convincing had the "before" shot not been shot in the shade. Not surprisingly, like the U.S., much of China is becoming obsessed with looking good.

Let us know if you find any mistakes in our postings. We can post, but curiously we can't view what we post. Blogspot.com seems to be blocked here.