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Since Mom went home, things have been really boring. Nothing around here is really open to eat, so I've mostly been having ramen and toast. That might change today, as Spring Festival is supposedly over. However, I'm going to take it with a grain of salt. 

I do have water, though, which is nice to have. 

From the sounds last night, some neighbors moved in at about 9pm. I would have been more disturbed if two days ago I hadn't seen Mrs. Wong go in as if to make sure everything was alright. So now I have a silent or so neighbor. Maybe two. Most likely one. All this means is I can no longer sing until three am. 

I'm still trying to put photos up- the internet is slow, and I know my mother wants them. 

Back in Kaifeng with Mom

Some of the things that are going on in Kaifeng involve boxes, but it's not just Kaifeng. In the New Year Spirit, almost every store owner who has an open shop (not all do), have ordered huge boxes of gifts. It's like those jam collections or meat or cheese collections you see at Christmas, the ones that Mom could not be convinced to bring me (although, in retrospect, that's probably okay). They contain either booze, fruit (apples, peaches, clementines, dragon's eyes, dragonfruit), some vegetables, crackers, or soft snack cakes. Some contain ramen. And these boxes just line the sides of streets. 

So as we were walking through Kaifeng to get to the Iron Pagoda (it's closest to the campus), we passed many of these people. We went into the park, saw the pagoda, saw the lake, saw the bonsai tree garden, and went downtown for lunch at the buffet. Jeff was there, and Mom talked a lot to him. When the buffet was over and we were filled (so much meat, I love the buffet), we went home, picking up water on the way. 

Later that night we watched a movie called "The Forbidden Kingdom". Except it was the Chinese dub, which dubbed all the parts in China but left the English parts for America. That was amusing. We think the actor looks like my sister's current boyfriend. 

Puyang Day 5

On this day, we discovered we were going to see a cousin. The cousin had been married three days before, and she and her husband were coming back to her hometown. We were served a very nice meal, with dishes like turtle soup, cold chicken, wasabi plant, and fried cicadas. 

I partook in all the dishes, though I had to be convinced to try the cicadas. Mom did not partake of their delicious. When it's all said and done, I guess, cicada is no different than shrimp- it comes in a shell, there's meat inside, and it has odd legs that poke out as you try to eat it. The end. 

Also in the restaurant Mom made friends with the baby who'd originally stated she was scared of the foreign people. By the end, they were both playing peek-a-boo.

The cousin lived in the village, so Alexis allowed us time to see the village before we left. It was very small, and one old woman asked whose children we were- thinking the only reason we would visit is because we were family. We laughed. 

Then we drove back to Kaifeng, had dinner with Adam and Allan, and I watched Alexis go to take the SAT in Hong Kong. It was a decent trip. Along the way we also saw Ben and made plans for the next morning. 

Puyang Day Four

New Year's Day! We were woken up in the morning with loud fireworks. I didn't bother to look at the time. Mom would wake me up later, as she did each morning in this hotel, by trying to figure out which lightswitch turned on the light in the bathroom. 

We arrived early enough to eat breakfast jaozi, and then we watched TV. It was the most exciting, let me tell you. We watched people in an obstacle course, and we saw a 60s Chinese movie about a women's basketball coach taking the women to the olympics. We mostly watched it due to the English subtitles. 

Then we had lunch, which was delicious. I think this lunch had a main dish of dried flowers. It was quite delicious. So many things I did not think I would eat in China- turtle, flowers, duck. And yet. 

We were supposed to go to a park, but Alexis got a phone call from her sister that they were headed to the hospital. So Mom and I went back to our hotel so that Alexis could see her grandfather, who'd been in there this entire time. We waited for her to contact us again, passing the time with trying to understand a TV drama about a mother-in-law. After another delicious dinner, we played cards, learning a new game which seems similar to President without so many tricks. 

Puyang Day Three

I know I'm a bit behind on the updates. Sorry. I do mean to update about when Mom got attacked by a lady with leeks. 

On day three we awoke and got up to visit Alexis's house by 10am. When we arrived, they were making jaozi! Jaozi are delicious, and they had at least a hundred made alrady. We volunteered to help, and we did, even if our jaozi were a bit ugly. Mom did the rolling of the dough while I did the pinching. Wasn't perfect, but that's okay. They made us eat our own later. 

Before lunch, Dad set off firecrackers- with the shortest fuse I've seen. He had maybe three seconds before it went off? And it was so loud my ears were ringing afterward. But it was fun. Even when no one was looking directly- luckily my camera was. Later Dad and Mom went off to visit a grandfather, so Alexis, her second older sister and husband, Mom and I were left putting decorations up on the house. I managed to put two wall hangings up before Mom mentioned her feet were cold and she couldn't feel them, so we went back to the hotel. 

That night there was a big dinner. Maybe 21 people. It was Alexis's mom's family, and the uncle gave a speech about how lucky we were to have met each other in this big world of 7 billion people. The grandpa and grandma were there, too, and they were tickled, I think, by the fact that we were there. 

That night on TV was a gala, which reminded me a lot of Japan's gala on the solar New Year's Eve, but I'd had too much wine and opted to stay home rather than risk being toasted again. I'm lucky no one offered me baijou. Brother-in-law had, and he had to leave the viewing of the home gala due to his headache and stomachache. 

Mom came home at about 10, and then we went to bed. What a boring story indeed!

Puyang Day 2

Yesterday in Puyang Mom and I went over to Alexis's house and watched them put up latnerns and red strips of paper on the doorways. Alexis also took us through the streets and we saw an ancient well. Pictures will come.   We also met her Aunt who is the best hostess. Mom called her a reverse-vulture- she watched everyone and when she thought they were finished with their food, she brought them more. She was most excellent.

Puyang Day One

Well, since yesterday my mother and I relaxed around the house (good idea because she was exauhsted), there wasn't much worth updating. For an hour I shouted out different arobic excercises. Is that interesting? Because I don't think it is, really.   Today Mom and I went to Puyang. Alexis's cousins came to pick us up (judge cousin of the high courts of Henan), and we drove to Puyang, a town that reminds me of a Kaifeng without... a center, maybe. Kaifeng feeds a lot off of Zhengzhou. I'm not sure Puyang does the same, but this is only my first impression, and impressions are able to change.   Mom kept getting stuck in doors.   The first door was the bus door, when we had to leave. It was a bus system whihc I have never seen; a woman was there alongside the driver to take your money. There was no inserting it into a change slot, even though the bus had them. Then, as we left the crowded bus, Mom wasn't quick enough, and the doors started to shut on her. Alexis and her mother yelled at the driver and then Mom was safe.   At the restaurant, Mom and I were treated to a fine Chinese meal (Mom was the guest of honor since she is my parent), but on the elevator up she got hit by the doors, twice. Entering and exiting. Luckily the doors were sensitive enough to stop and say "That's a person! Abort! Abort!" but still, it's a little scary.   We had a very delicious meal, and are safely in Puyang, somehow with a hotel with internet. I'm not sure if this costs money; if it does, I shall pay Alexis back.

Mom is coming

So Mom is coming.

I am really nervous. Between her coming and being sick, I strangely feel homesick; something I haven't felt in a long, long time, actually. I could use this post to talk about my mother, homesickness or preparing for her arrival, but instead, I'm using it as an announcement.

Good day.

Today

Yesterday those of us left went to lunch and dinner together. Lunch was filled with cute 4-year-old girls.

Dinner gave me food posioning. I don't know how I keep getting this, other than I must be far too fearless for my own good.

Mom arrives in two days. The thought of her here makes me a little homesick, but not as much as vomiting in an empty house.

Today I have a fever. Good times.

Break Time

There still seem to be a lot of people in the university, and I'm not sure as to why- perhaps it was that test that was mentioned.

Ann left- 30 minutes before we arrived home, so we missed seeing her. Adam and the Tims have left- they'll be back on maybe the 25th. Which leaves me with Ben and Will, two people who I don't often eat with. Although Jenny is coming over today, and while she's more of Ben's friend, it is always nice to see her. She has a good sense of humor.

So what will end up happening is that I need to force myself to be comfortable eating by myself. Many restaurants are full of people currently, and the stalls by West Gate have sort of dwindled for lunch- but not for dinner, apparently.

I also need to end up going to get groceries. It's sadly hard to motivate myself to go outside, which is sad when I need to go outside to eat. Today I'll go, though, and get some bread or something. Bread is tasty.

Day Five

Woke up at 8, everyone was talking by 9pm. We went to the grottos at 10, got there t 11:30 (long bus ride), went to see the grottos, came back, went to a restaurant that was closed, went back, got our bags, went to the train station.

I don’t feel like explaining the grottos, so have some movies instead. Forgive my breathing, there were a lot of stairs. A lot.

The train ride was long, long, long. We left at 4:30 (thinking we were going to miss a train that might be early for once) and thought it would be maybe two hours. However, it was three hours. Three hours on a train isn’t bad, however, hard seats are benches where you face the other party, and we’d spent all the time on the buses already- it was annoying. Tiring. I wanted to be home.

Finally we arrived home, got turned around in the station, turned ourselves back around and went out past the taxi drivers waiting for people to pick up. We assumed they had a set price and we didn't want them to…give us that price. While in the taxi I realized I only had 100 yuan, which is annoying to break, and Will only had…nothing. So we had to call Adam and Tim and Tim to help us out. They did so (although waiting raised the price by 2 Yuan), and then we checked back in our rooms (Tim and Tim had a hotel room across the way), and we went to Carol’s place, a place where Adam’s student works, to eat.

There we were celebrities. It seems a lot of students were taking their starter entrance exams, so they pointed and looked at us (they are from places where not many foreigners live) and finally a couple of girls asked to take a picture with us outside of a different restaurant (it offered more light). We agreed, and soon we had many people asking for photos. One girl wanted a photo with only me, and then said, “I want to kiss you.”

I was a little confused- isn’t lesbianism frowned upon in China?

Then we clarified she wanted to kiss me on the cheek and I made a big surprised face for a funny photo, and all was well.

This really means I have done it. I have gotten kissed before Handsome Teacher Will did in China.

Hurrah!

And this is the end of my tale!

Day Four

The next morning we had to be up by 7am, and were still unsure if we were headed back to Kaifeng. I was all for returning early, however, it became more important that Dread Tim have a place to put his suitcase (which later fell apart), so we headed on a random bus to the hostel. With no idea if the bus would take us there.

Somehow, these things work out well enough. Will was on the phone with the hostel but they were not quite as helpful as the people on the bus were- they knew the bus traveled from one train station to the other, and informed us to wait until the end. Luckily, the hostel is near the train station, only a five minute walk. So we walked to food (KFC for lunch, and breakfast was KFC and Baskin Robbins and I have little desire to return to KFC for a while), then moved to find our hostel.

The hostel was on the main road, near a bus stop, which was excellent. We also managed to buy a room with six beds, meaning one bed would be empty. So the Tims and I were on the bottom bunks, with Will and Adam on top. My bed was creaky. And all the beds were…incredibly hard. It was like sleeping on wood.

It was about 3pm when we decided to try and head to one of two places: The grottos, or the White Horse temple. We decided the grottos would need more time, so we went for the White Horse temple. It was about an hour by bus each way. Here are some videos from the temple.

We were told soon after we arrived to stop filming the military people and head monk that were in the temple, so we moved to places where they were not.

After the temple closed, we went to a shop, where I bargained on behalf of Dread Tim. It was quite fun. When we returned, we bought snacks and alcohol for a movie, and then brought them into the room. Then we left to find a real dinner, and we had by far the best meal I have tasted in China. It was delicious. I have no more words for how delicious it was other than “extremely”.

When we returned to the room, we watched a movie called “The Room” which has been dubbed the “Citizen Kane of bad movies”. It is pretty awful; only the mocking makes it better.

…Yes. Only the mocking.

Then, by 11pm, we were asleep in our hard, unfeeling beds.

Day Three

We awoke at different times. I was the first one up, and Will the last- but he had showered the previous night, and was thereby justified in being last. We arrived in time for the tour (I barely finished breakfast on time), and then we got on the tour bus. There were 7 of us- the five in our group were joined by a French man and a German woman. They knew each other and were friends. Our first trip was a museum.

I’ve already given you my spiel on museums, so have this picture of the guys instead.

After the museum (which showcased primitive communism), we went to a factory that produced terracotta warriors. The guide said they were the real replications, and anything we found on the street were made of “mud” (he meant clay) and not fired, and therefore of lesser quality. We spent 5 minutes in a demonstration as to how the soldiers are made, and then shuffled through about 3 or 4 big rooms of all stuff we had seen on Muslim Street, plus furniture and jewelry that I don’t think a terracotta factory made.

The problem was that at the factory, everything was 500% more expensive than on the street. We were lucky to have gone there first, I think. As Non-Dread Tim put it, the quality didn’t matter. “They look the same. …No one will know the difference.” Tim also discovered that despite marked prices, the people in the factory would still bargain with you.

Tim is a bargaining genius, I am sure of it. I hope he hosts his own show on Bravo or something.

After the factory we went into a restaurant that was colder inside than outside, given a meal that was not quite filling, and then went to the warriors! There were many shops outside them, leading us up the path. There was also a dude there who had discovered them.

The warriors are in three pits accessible to the public. The story behind the warriors is kind of interesting- after the emperor died, the public knew where the tomb was. So the enemy, while invading, remembered that there was a tomb with a bunch of statues that had working bronze weapons. Needing to resupply, they went into the caverns and smashed everything, taking the weapons with them. So the warriors you see are all reconstructed. In pit three, they are the best preserved, and they still had paint on them in some places. The best preserved warrior was a kneeling archer with only his feel broken.

After we left these warriors, it was an hour back to the hostel, where we stopped for a bathroom break, and then we went to find dinner. We tried to have the local specialty, cold noodles, and found a place that was far cheaper than any place we had been before. The noodles were about 5 kuai a person. Still, they weren’t as filling as some, so we went into a baozi shop and had some very, very tasty baozi. I like baozi.

Afterwards, Adam and Will went to party with the European couple; Tims were exhausted and had headaches, and I stayed in. Adam and Will came back and then we all went to bed. I’m pretty sure this night we teased Will by hiding his pillow and his blanket and made him find them. Luckily it was not a very big room.

Day Two

The next morning I went to breakfast while Adam and Will went to go find baozi, their breakfast of choice. Baozi are things wrapped in a steamed bun, usually meat. They’re quite tasty. While they were buying, I bought a breakfast and then Tim (non-dreads) came and joined me, having a coffee with his breakfast. The other Tim, Dread Tim, was exhausted from 8 days of straight travel, so we let him sleep in. When he’d woken up, we headed out to Muslim Street of Xi’an.

Muslim Street in Xi’an is great for bargaining. It reminds me more of Chinatown in New York than it does of the rest of China. Dread Tim was looking for souvenirs, so we walked through the stores. I bought some gloves, and Tim (non dread) was probably the best person to watch. If you didn’t know him, you’d think he was angry with the people who were trying to bargain with him.

“How much for this watch?”

“250.”

“Is it real?”

“Yes.”

“No it’s not. Look, I was here a few months ago and I got this watch for 150, so I’ll pay that price.”

Or in response to “I’ll give you a special discount,”: “It’s not special. Look, if I offer you this much, you’ll still get a nice profit on top.”

I’m pretty sure I could watch an entire three hours montage of Tim bargaining. It’s just too funny for the rest of us. On the upside, I’m much more comfortable with bargaining, even though it’s not that done in Kaifeng. I bought gloves and something else~. I spent probably 90 Yuan on bargaining. That’s about $13 USD. I feel so rich. In fact, Tim and Tim kept converting and yes, it’s hard to not picture yourself as rich. Also I learned “don’t touch things” because then store owners will flock to you from wherever they are. They could be in the bathroom, and they’d know. They’d know.

After the morning (Later we’d go back, for Tim said it was a completely different feel), we went to a museum. I’m convinced now all Chinese museums are similar with the collected bronze tips of axes, arrowheads, swords, pots for the ancestors, ect.- I’ll still go to them, because it is interesting and they usually have a Western toilet.

That probably makes me a bad person, but you know, not squatting was kind of a priority on this trip. Made me watch what I drank, how much I ate, where we were and how soon we’d get back to the hostel. The dudes usually had a urinal in their bathrooms of various places, however, I’ve still not mastered squatting, and pee on my leg is not exactly… anything good, actually.

So the museum was of Xi’an, with ancient dynasties. There was pottery and there were giant pots to burn things to give the ancestors. There are two really interesting things about Chinese museums that I’d like to point out- a lot of history was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution (about the 1950s).

1). A lot of the stuff in museums was found after all these items were destroyed. China has that much history that you can keep digging and keep finding more history. It reminds me of collecting arrowheads; they were used in a very historical sense, but they’re everywhere, and little kids like to go collect them without thinking about the history that put them in place there.

2). China likes to restore things. So even if a piece of pottery is in pieces and some are missing, they’ll restore the thing to what they think it looks like. In the past they would match the color, but more recent discoveries have different colors so you know what is the original and what’s not. Personally, this doesn’t bother me at all- I think it’s neat seeing the final picture, but I understand it is vastly different than how the west does it.

As we were leaving the museum, a woman came up to me and asked me to translate a letter from cursive. It was rather hard, and when she asked me a question about comprehension I had to point out that the author had used an unclear statement even in English, and it wasn’t her fault for not understanding. Then we left to go eat dinner.

Dinner was yet another Muslim restaurant, filled with skewers of meat like Shish-kabobs. We discovered the Australians have a different word for a kabob, but I have forgotten it. I did remember that they don’t have packets of coffee or instant flavor. They have sachets of them.

After the dinner we went back to bargain. I bought gloves, but Adam by far had the best bargaining of the day. I don’t quite remember the words, but she started him for buying 100 pairs (“I don’t want them”) and finally down to 5 pairs. Odd, because one normally bargains in money, not pairs of socks. They were fake Ralph Lauren socks, and she then wanted 65 kuai for them. Adam insisted he no longer wanted the socks and she went down to 5 kuai. He then bought them.

I think she might have been desperate, she kept trying to sell us stuff so long as we were amused. I managed to get Will out of a sweater by lying and saying he had a girlfriend who would be offended if he bought a sweater as the fake girlfriend had knitted him an ugly one.

I should probably stop lying to complete strangers. But it’s really fun inventing stories about people.

Then we went home! And we slept, for the next day we needed to be ready to go at 9am, as we were going to the Terracotta warriors!

Day One

I woke up at about 6:00, knowing I’d have to shower. I showered, finished packing and preparing, but I was out the door at 6:45. Luckily, I’m not the only one who runs late, and my suggestion of 6:45 had taken this in to account when suggesting a time to meet. The Tims came over to Adam’s place and locked up their stuff, Adam complained about waking up when it was still dark- I have to disagree with his opinion that it is no good to wake up before the sun does. I think it’s kind of fun seeing still sleeping people and watching the city wake up.

Like most of my journeys, the dawn only came while I was waiting for transport. The bus ride there had been sparse and quiet due to sleepiness; the train station was louder and had a little more energy. Everyone was waiting to get on their train- we had arrived in the waiting room an hour early, a mistake we would not repeat again. There was a lot of waiting in a cold seat, there was a lot of talking about where we were going. Finally, we boarded the train- somehow already in line- and we walked to the platform. We were near the back of the train and as we sat and the train took off I informed Adam that if we crashed, we were in the safest position in a crash as our backs were facing the front of the train.

His response was something I don’t care to repeat, but I imagine he didn’t want to think about crashing at all. That or he still wasn’t quite awake yet.

As we sat in our bottom half of the car, a woman came by. We thought she might be selling food, or tickets, but as she held up her hands, toys came alive with noise and lights. Airplanes and balls. The strangest things. I had not been expecting that.

Will enjoyed this ride, for he got to practice his Chinese a lot- in fact, I think this entire trip Will got to practice lots of Chinese. People were curious about us. Mostly the Tim with dreadlocks. Mostly him.

We arrived at Zhengzhou with 3 hours to spare, so we walked along the way to the main square with a double pagoda.

Poor dread Tim had a small rolling suitcase that he carried with him, but the rest of us had backpacks or a laptop bag. This is significant only because it was a lot worse for dread Tim to make any sort of trip. We still had time to kill, so we went up a skywalk, and then decided to go to the park, a big, open park that has everything from ping-pong to roller coasters. The ping-pong is free, as is entry to the park. The roller coasters are not.

We enjoyed the park, then went back to the train station where we hung out before heading to the Bullet Train.

Somehow, everyone but Tim (non-dreads) had made it in the same row. We continued to travel, then, and looking out the window was very interesting- mountains that looked like they had been strip-mined long ago, leaving strange shapes, or mountains that had been made into plateaus, graveyards in the middle of fields, deteriorated houses that had some use a long time ago, villages that looked ready to fall apart, villages that had all of the crop drying on the roof, no advertisements, everything smoggy, dusty, and deteriorating.

Occasionally we went through a tunnel and there was blackness instead. When we arrived at Xi’an, the final stop of the train, we meandered to the subway. The subway had a very strange character in it, a cartoon of the subway. It took me a few commercials to figure it out; luckily, the only thing that plays on the recently built subway is commercials for the subway itself.

When we left the subway, we were being guided by Tim (non-dreads), who had been to the hostel before. It was longer than I anticipated and I had discovered something else that slowed me down- blisters. In my desire to keep warm I had worn two pairs of socks; a foolish move that is much easier seen in retrospect than in the moment. But it didn’t matter; I had blisters and was looking forward to being somewhere where I was not kept in a chair for several hours.

Xi’an was… big. My first impression was that of a subway, of giant skyscrapers and streets so busy they needed bridges for the people to walk over them. I’ve been to busy cities before, but it always strikes me how big a place can be. Of course, to make it Chinese, it had some dust, food vendors everywhere, advertisement signs halfway through the sidewalk, and the same pattern of tile on the sidewalk. At least three cities have this pattern on the sidewalk. I must go to more cities to find this out.

We made it to the hostel, and were welcomed with welcoming tea. I don’t know much about other hostels, but this one was great. It forever spoiled me. We’d arranged for two private rooms (one of three and one of two), and inside our room were three beds: two doubles and one king. I took the king. I do not regret this decision.

Adam jumped around on the bed and remarked about how beautifully soft the beds were, and this is true; since coming to China, these beds were by far the softest. The bathroom was just spacious and cold. Very cold. Adam kept beers in there to keep them cool.

After we’d dropped off our stuff, we went around, just walking and exploring, hoping for a place to eat a 2-3pm lunch. We found a Muslim restaurant that served a thick bread in a soup, and it was delicious. I don’t know much about Muslims in China other than they have the most delicious food. That’s really the extent of my knowledge.

We hung out for the rest of the day at the hostel- there was a bar and restaurant. When the guys had their fill of pool, we went back to our giant room to watch a famous Australian movie named “Castle”. It reminded me a little bit of Napoleon Dynamite. But it was fun to watch with everyone, mostly because everyone is commenting and therefore my comments are socially acceptable.

Then we all went to bed. Trains make anyone sleepy, I suppose.

The Pre-Trip to Xi'an and Luoyang

To make up for being home, my internet has crapped out, as has the person I’ve been borrowing from. Maybe this is because of wires. Maybe this is because of my shoddy router. I dunno. Drat. I’ll be updating and writing at the same time, so the first update tonight and then I’m going to bed. This is a long thing, so I’m splitting it up by days.

The trip started, I guess, with getting our tickets the day before- we went to the ticket place across the street. Ben was there, as was Xandra, a helper at the office. Tim, Tim, Adam, Will and I had gone to eat lunch- Tim and I had never met before, so it was kind of a feeling out sort of thing, like “what is this weekend going to be with you?” thing. On my end, at least, it was pretty cool. I looked forward to hanging out with them all.

Then we went to pick up tickets, We showed our passports, our confirmation number, got our seats- relatively close to each other, which was nice, but she said she couldn’t find one reservation. It turned out that it was due to handwriting comprehension, and soon we were given our tickets. It took far longer than the people behind us wanted or expected, I am sure. As we left we saw a protest hanging outside- a bunch of middle-aged people with a sign that said, “Henan University, Give Us Back Our Son”. Nobody had heard anything of a suicide (although, that’s not uncommon, we foreign teachers are rarely in the loop, it seems), but there were some girls talking in the ticket office. Apparently the son had been in the Physical Education major, and he had been running. And running. And just… stopped.

We had no idea, but we all agreed that foreigners next to protests are a good way to leave the country really quickly, so we avoided asking the parents and entered the university on the side (the protest was blocking the exit and a little of the entrance, so we went to the side of the banner and entered as quickly as possible). I do not know what happened to anyone.

Then we all had duck, by “we all” I mean Ben did not come, but Ann did, and Will did not. It was tasty duck, though. The head chef came out to meet us and talk to us- we were very exciting foreigners, it seems, and at least I’ve finally met the guy. He had met some impressive people, used to cook in Xi’an, it was exciting. I was glad to have Alexis there as a translator

Then we went to bed early, because there was packing to be done! We’d have to meet at 6:45 to make sure we arrived at the train station!

Testing

Testing a new way to update a blog. Hopefully, this will work in case I can't access blogspot. 

Testing paragraphs. 

Testing cheese, I guess. 

Theivery

Most of today was spent doing two things: Watching movies and grading. Not surprisingly, those things were done together (movies I'd already seen so that I wouldn't pay more attention to the movie). I was debating going out to dinner when I got a text from Alexis, asking if we should eat. I told her sure, and waited for her. It was a nice break from 6-7 hours of grading.

Alexis stopped by and asked me why there were policemen, and then she stopped. "Adam's bike is gone!" she exclaimed in surprise.

Adam had bought a blue electric bike that he could ride around. He really liked the bike. But today, as I was grading (the bike storage is underneath my steps into the apartment) someone tore the lock off his bike and stole it. The police took Adam's statement and a description of the bike; tomorrow they'll look at the security cameras and get a statement from Adam. Because the bike is a more expensive item, he has to get a statement and there's a little more paperwork involved.

He's not at all excited for going to the station. He's also not very excited that his bike was stolen, to put it politely.

It's rather worrisome for me; I didn't hear anything, and the theft happened closest to my door, even though it's on the second story. On the other hand, I always keep my door locked unless I'm expecting company (like Ann or Alexis). So while that's not a guarantee I won't be robbed, it is a mental comfort.

Still, it's really rotten and I hope Adam gets his bike back.

Some Papers

I would like to post here some of my favorite "make your own countries" from the "make your own country" assignment for my class.

There were five things I was looking for: Geography, History, War, Economy, and Politics. So they had to write an essay about those five things (I did not grade them for grammar or spelling).

Only one kid decided to copy me, so he failed. The rest did a very good job. I would like to post some excerpts here. You can see small ideas as to what Chinese life entails (milk powder), or just how some of the kids think.

And before we get started, I'd like to say that I'm not posting names or grades so you can't cyber-stalk my students. If any of my students see this and would like their posts removed, I will do so. Or if I decide to use this blog for money (spuer-highly unlikely), I will remove this entry- these were not created by me and I have no desire to claim them as my own. These excerpts are purely for entertainment purposes only.

All right then.

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"Paradise Last"

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Despite that, there are beautiful woods, green fields, and there are many rare animals .everybody wants to go there, so the tourism is developed, and is responsible for 90% of Sun’s GDP. Also the country exports milk powder, because the milk is authentic milk.

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(A quick word about milk powder- All milk comes in powder form. You will not find milk in the fridge).

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Miyane is a big country lies in the Western Europe, near to Scotland, and it looks just like a cat. In Miyane, it’s almost covered by plain, less mountain and valley. The longest and most important river is Minal, it almost runs though the whole country. Because of near to the North Sea, the weather in Miyane is mild and rains often.

There was only one war in Mayane’s history. It was civil war which happened in 1890,at that time, Miyane had two parties ,one is Desile Party, and the other is Manale Party. They fought against each other in order to charge the country. In that war, many people died and its economy was also weakened. In the end, the Desile party got the victory. And it took a long time for them to recover the country.

In Miyane, there is only one party now, that is the Desile party and the president is in charge. The president is elected by the party every five years. And the legislature and judges are all formed by the president. But there must be 1/3 peoples are citizens when forming them. These people are represent the whole people, they can take people’s benefits into account when making laws or taking some actions.

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Because of the advantageous geography conditions and the fruitfulness soil, most people of this country plant flowers like roses, lily, lilac that all kinds of flowers that you can imagine, so the flowers makes Juliet more romantic than the other country .therefore Juliet depends on to export the flowers as the main national income .of course there still some industries to produce perfume.

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(This was common- many countries exported trees, flowers, diamonds or other precious gems.)

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In Fly ,it has one party .It is The Communist Party ,it has a chair man .he should be a person of great ability and he charges the power ,and this country set the laws ,in this law every people are equal and every people need observe it ,this Party always put the people’s benefit in the first place ,so the people of this country all love it .

Fly had a war many years ago .it was invaded by British in World War, in this war they lost many people but the native people are very united they are very brave and they win at last.

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No one doesn’t want to possess this paradise. Seeing this land of happiness, Japan can’t seat steadily naturally. From time immemorial, Japan is a county which is fond of invading others. In 19**, Japan landed on Love secretly by submarine and gave a fire on Love. But they were in vain. Love is full of love, it is a big harmony family, all the people are very united, and anyone who wants to invade it is just in vain! At length, justice defeated evil, Love won!

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Unfortunately, LOVE was not the only country invaded by the Japanese, I found. Most students had one of three countries involved with invasion and war: Japan, Great Britain, and Germany (with Japan being the most popular enemy, while Great Britain was number two). In fact, I don't think any country was an aggressor in a war. They were all invaded and had to defend themselves.

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1000 years ago, a group of Indians heard that there was a lot wealth on an island in the Pacific Ocean, so they decided to explore the island. They set off from the east coast of India. Five days later, they found nothing and they suffered a heavy rainstorm the six day. They didn’t know where they have to go and they couldn’t control their boat. After the rainstorm, they found they were carried to a triangle of a river and a big tree near the river. When they landed on the island, to their disappointment, there was nothing except some plaints. When they were sailing along the river for few miles, they found a lot of birds ,monkeys and other small animals, they also found a lot fruits on the island, the scenery was very beautiful and they could have free on the island, so they decided to stay on the island.

They named the island the Great Tree Island, and named their country The Great Tree Empire. In the country, everyone was equal, they began to plant crops and trained animals for themselves, and they were very satisfied with the autarkic life.

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Flower is a name of the country. It has a hundred million people in Europe. It is temperate marine climate in Europe. It looks like a high shoe,the land is rich and smooth.The main rivers ,Sun and Moon,through east and west of this country.The two famous plains are Kaifeng and Zhengzhou. [These are cities near where we live.]

Owing to the large numbers of people,planting is advanced and responsible for 80% of the country's GDP.Flower has many different kinds of flowers,like rose,peony,chrysanthemum,tulip,lotus and so on.It exports flower,flower tea,perfume or other flower products to all over the world.

But in 1950s, Grass invaded it and burned large regions of plants.One-third of people died,Grass captured the west of the country.The king owns powerful rights,he didn't fight with Grass,others cabinet minister wanted to try,but they had no true power.

In order to change this situation to restrict the power of the king. A woman who named [Student's name] led whole workers to take part in strike in the building of the king,but they lost. At last,they had to flight with king,they won a victory. [Student's name] was voted by the people to become the chairman of Flower.The party is Communist Party of Flower led multi-party cooperation and political consultation system in 1960.

As the time past,Flower becomes stronger than before in economy , politics and army.If you have free time,you can go traveling to Flower.

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During the world war Ⅱ,Toulous was not a lucky one,too.It was invaded by the American,and many people suffer from the sorrow during that time.This invading last one year,then the united states helped Toulouse fight the American.At last,,Toulous won the liberty.

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I have no idea, guys, unless by "American" they mean anyone from North or South America, which is unusual in China. Luckily, this did not affect their grade as I was not grading them on logic.

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“dang~~dang~~”, the first bell ring of the country echoes in the early morning. Life rhythm here become lucid and lively: bread-earners go to work, children get up for school, birds sing on the trees, shops open their doors…. “Taxi!” a man wearing a dignity suit, maybe later for his working, calls a taxi in a hurry. Big screens on the street are showing various kinds of advertisements like beautiful clothes model or delicious breakfast or once in a while some brief speech for electing from the two political parties in this country. What is worthy to say is that one of the party promise peoples they will not only promote economic growth but also consummate welfare system and education system, which leads more support from peoples.

At the east harbor, ships are loaded alongshore while workers are busing to carry cases with full of seafood and put them on the trucks. After loading, the truck drivers transport these cases to factories for canning. Export of seafood canning to countries all around the world is one of the most important economic development policies, which always provide lost of employment at different links and make people’s life better, so the government thinks highly of the development this industry including its production safe, convenient transport, as well as the trade abroad.

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Paradise is a small country which lies in the south of the Asia. People live in a peaceful and self-supporting way. There is a grassland which called free. As its name, there are hundreds and thousands sheep, horses and cows galloping freely on it. The rear livestock is flourishing. There are rich in rivulets which are used for irrigation. The soil is suitable for crops' growing, so the agriculture blossoms vigorously. In addition, there is a waterfall calling True Love. When a coupe is touring here, they would like to kiss each other by the side of it, in order to let it witness their true love and get sheltering from the LOVE.

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This is a new country born in the western . It is a big country and there are lots of trees and flowers , the air is fresh and the water is clear , when you come here , you will can't help to breathing the fresh air , perhaps you have never felt it before . Do you want to know what the country it is .let me tell you ,it is Ameffica,which is a new world ,everything new to us . It is next to Mississipi river , north to America , south to Africa The weather is warm all the year round , and the people is kind very much . When you enter the land , they will fist give you a hug to welcome you ,then take you home and offer you a rich dinner .

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Ameffica was a little interesting. I wish I lived to the South of Africa next to the Mississipi river, where people kidnapped me and offered me dinners of rich food. Do they have professional huggers to welcome all who step on the land? Or is that just airport security?

No, but seriously, here is probably my favorite country, only for the last line.

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Qiland

There exists a developing country Qiland in Africa, which is covered with endless desert. Through the center of it are a group of volcanoes. As a result, disasters sometimes attack this country.

The people here make a living mainly out of agriculture and mining. Large quantities of mines attract many other countries’ attention at the same time, which also bring some wars. Such as Mine Fighting in1979, about one out of five of the population lost their lives during the fierce war.

Because of the shortage of advanced technology and well-developed transportation, the life here is still in poor conditions. The people here are not rich. However, happiness doesn’t depend on how rich one is. They live a happy life, enjoying the charming natural scenery in four seasons on their motherland.

Nowadays, there are three main parties in the government. One is represented for the famers, the second is for the working-class, and the third is for the bourgeois. They control and cooperate with each other. All the members are from the people. Each of the three has a minister. Who has the most power depends on the common citizens. The election takes place every four years.

The people here are really friendly and kind. If you have a chance to go there, take it! I’m sure you will experience the most exciting trip that you have ever had.

The King of Cat say,“the more points, the better.”