What a strange term it's been

Well, it' been nearly a month since my last post, and much has happened since then. In the last week of December, and the first week of January, we gave our students our finals, mine consisted of student presentations on various laws around the world and whether or not they could be used in China successfully. Needless to say I got various responses from all students, with the most impassioned involving U.S. foreign policy, and how the U.S. should leave Iraq, and other countries alone, during this presentation there was much foot stamping to prove points, and it got the class pretty interested. There was also the usual U.S. gun laws, and how if they were used in China, that China would become the old west with gun battles everywhere, or so that group believed. The second part of my exam involved some multiple choice questions and some descriptive writing. For the most part my classes did pretty well, I am glad to say.
Some of my students work on their written final.


Christmas here was a pretty low key affair, a few teachers prepared some chicken dinner which they got from a local Muslim restaurant. One of the teachers grabbed a piece of Chicken and to the yell of another teacher noticed that it was a Chicken's head deep fried, feathers and all, thankfully before he put it in his mouth. New years, was nothing too exciting either, as we went to a local bar for 2 for 1 drinks for awhile, played some pool, then headed to a new dance club which opened which was a lot of fun, then headed to a friends apartment to continue the festivities. I think we ended up going to bed around 8:30.

After the holidays another week of finals, and a week of watching movies in classes commenced. The movies mainly served to provide me with extra time to grade finals, and with over 500 students to give grades too, they were greatly appreciated. The movie Balls of Fury was a big hit. We had a lot to look forward to though, such as a 6 week PAID vacation when our final grades were submitted. We started part of that vacation last week, on January 9th, by heading to Hong Kong for a week.

To get to Hong Kong we took a 10 hour bus from Xiamen, which was basically like sitting in first class seats on an airplane, and was exponentially more comfortable than the return ride home, but more on that later.

While in Hong Kong we stayed in the "Mirador Mansion" and our rooms were about the equivalent of an extra large phone booth, but it was clean, and nothing was crawling on the walls or floors (at least when the light was on), and most importantly is was somewhat inexpensive, at least for Hong Kong. The first night we went to an Irish pub, you have to love the fact that these are all over the world, and then, after a few $8 U.S. pints (at that moment, it really felt like we were home) we walked to the street market. The night market was huge! It went on for block after block and was covered with a sea of humanity. I bought a few trinkets for people back home, and hopefully they survive the next 6 months. Then we walked to Victoria Harbor, which is an amazingly beautiful view of Hong Kong Island, and the "real downtown" where many corporations have their Chinese head quarters. Sadly, the first night, the smog and mist was so thick, that we could not see the buildings across the Harbor.

Beautiful? Victoria Harbor.

Ah, much better.


On other nights we were there, we found local bar streets with live bands, which were actually pretty good and some even had amazing guitar players. Next to one of these bars was a smaller places which eventually turned into a karaoke stage, at which Ben and I found ways to ruin perfectly good Rolling Stones and Guns N' Roses among other artists songs'. It was a really fun time though, and we met people from all over the world there as well.
Murdering another helpless song with some people we met from Canada, while Ben busts out a tasty groove on a Tambourine he found somewhere.

Towards the end of the trip we got a bit worn out and realized we're not the young kids we used to be, and went to see a movie. Sadly, the only one not sold out was Alien vs. Predator 2, which was insanely funny on the unintentional comedy scale due to bad acting, plot, script, etc. Then we headed back home, and stumbled across a pub showing NFL playoff games at 2 and 5:30 am. So we headed back to the Mansion to take a nap and watch some of these games. We watched all of the Colts-Chargers game, and only made it through half of the second one, when we got our bill and realized the orange juice we were drinking cost $5 U.S. so we left tired, and poor. The next day was really uneventful as we rested, and went to see "The assassination of Jesse James," which was really a cool movie, and told in a way which reminded me of PBS civil war documentaries. Then, the next day we dropped Ben off at the airport, and Steve and I got on a bus, and another adventure began. However, we did not leave Hong Kong without gorging on western culture, eating at TGI Fridays, Outback, Burger King, and Subway, oh glorious subway, before we left.

Steve, at glorious Subway.

The bus ride back was an experience to say the least, Steve and I specifically asked for "sitting buses," and not a "sleeper bus." Needless to say, we were ignored, and herded onto a bus to Xiamen, or what I will hereby refer to as mini-mobile-hell. Steve and I were one of the last few unlucky souls to board this vessel, and 10 hours of mini-mobile-hell (MMH) ensued. MMH was 30 "beds" which were skinnier than a twin, and about a foot shorter crammed onto a bus. On this bus were crammed around 50 people, with Steve and myself not really able to fit into most of these "beds." As Steve and I were two of the last few people to get onto this bus we were herded to the back, in which were 3 men, already in "beds" and with about 18" between each of them, so, we climbed right up between two of these guys to make it 5 men in a loft. The horror was sometimes forgotten as I would drift off to sleep, until of of them would turn over and jab me in the ribs with their elbows unintentionally, or when they both weren't chain smoking in an enclosed bus. The bus was so packed that people had to sleep in the aisles, on the floor, on top of blankets. The biggest problem with this, is that when we stopped at rest stops, there was no way to get off the bus in order to relieve oneself or to get some air. Thank god I did not have to use the restroom on the bus either, as Steve did for 8 and a half hours of the 10 hour ride, and then finally, unable to bear the strain, fought his way to the restroom, only to stain most of his new shoes with "stuff" left on the bathroom floor. Ah the adventure...This is about all I can bear to write about MMH at the moment, as the memory is too painful.

Steve, one of the front parts of MMH, after most of the passengers got off, and we wait for the last stop.

More MMH, my backpack, is approximately 20" wide, and this is where I spent the 10 hours, with the other guys in the back while they chain smoked and spat seeds.

In other news, I fly to Chengdu on Friday, and then take a train to Tibet on Sunday, where I will spend the next 10 days, and hopefully be able to see this...

Mt. Everest...taken from acrossthedivide.com


Well, that's about all for now, I will do my best to update more frequently than once a month, and I Hope that all your holidays and new years have been good to you and your families wherever you are. Oh yea, finally, my phone number is 011-86-15860721762 so if you feel like giving me a call sometime and saving me the money, you will forever be awesome. Just remember that there is a 13 hour time difference from MN to China. Until next time...