Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le

Hey everybody, I hope everything is going great back home in the U.S. I have been really busy the last week. Leewen has started their summer session of classes, which means that I have been extremely busy. I have been working seven days a week on top of 10 hours of Chinese language lessons. Don't feel to sorry for me though because I am not working very many hours every week, they are just spread out through seven days.

Thursday, June 22nd was my birthday and my roommates threw a party for me. We bought a keg that cost a grand total of 60 yuan, or $7.50. They also made some mixed drinks for the people who do not drink beer. Qingdao is a city that draws a wide array of individuals from foreign countries. Most of these foreigners tend to go to the same bars and hangouts, resulting in the establishment of a nice sized clique. For my birthday my roommates invited several of them. A fellow teacher that I am taking my Chinese class decided that it would be a good idea to sing happy birthday to me in Chinese. There were several Chinese people there so they helped us foreigners to the sing the words correctly. So we began "Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le, zhu ni sheng ri kuai le." This was pretty funny, but then there were two girls from Russia and they volunteered to sing the song in Russian. Then a Chinese person that knew Japanese sang the song to me in Japanese. Then a Korean girl sang it to me in Korean. This continued around the room until it got a little ridiculous. I had the birthday song sang to me in ten different languages including English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, German, Rumanian, Russian, Hebrew, Spanish and Australian. Now I am not an idiot. I know that Australian is not a language and they speak English in Australia. We all decided to count Australian because they sang a different song. "For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow! So say all of us." It was all a good time. One of my roommates bought me a birthday cake, I put the picture at the top.

One day last week during my free time I went and toured the Tsingtao Brewery. Tsingtao is the most widely drank beer in China and it is the beer that is most widely exported out of China. However, it was recently bought out by Budweiser. I have noticed it is almost impossible to get to far away from home. Especially considering that I have met four people from Missouri since I arrived in China. One of which knew where Macon was and had been there before. Below, I have put a picture I took of an old Tsingtao beer advertisement. Notice the Swastika that was used as a symbol for the beer. Before anyone gets all excited and remembers back to Nazi Germany and their use of the Swastika, try to remember that the symbol was used by Tsingtao prior to WWII. The Swastika was originally a Hindu symbol representing the sun, without which there could be no life. It also is facing in all four directions which symbolizes stability, and groundedness. Adolf Hitler took the symbol from the Hindus, which would result in its use being taboo through most of the world.

Thanks to everybody who sent me emails and facebook messages for my birthday. I have been having a great time. My classes have been going great. I am going to take a few pictures of one of my classes and put them up sometime so keep an open eye. I will probably wait till Saturday because that is my favorite class.

Quote of the Week

"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about."
Oscar Wilde

I'll Take Three Roman Candles Please

One day when I was exploring Qingdao by myself I had a notable experience. I walked up to this little stand that was selling things. At first I honestly thought they were selling fireworks. I purchased what looked like Roman Candles, and after I bought them the people around began to get all excited. Of course, I could not understand a word they were saying, but I could tell they were trying to give me some kind of directions. They were pointing at a gate, pointing at poor beggars, and pointing at an old lady. I was extremely confused. Then one guy put his hands together like he was praying. I realized that this was some type of religious place. Next this old lady walked up and is holding these cards. I gave her some money and she had me pick three cards. I quickly figure out that I was getting my fortune read. She opened up each card and explained to me in Chinese what they meant, again I have no idea what she is telling me. After I got my fortune read they point me in the direction of this gate. I walk through it and after I round the corner everything makes sense. There was a Buddhist temple and the Roman Candles that I had bought were actually Buddhist incense sticks. When I went up for a closer look I discovered a pit where people put their sticks and light them. I didn't have a lighter so I just stuck the ones that I bought in the ash and went around to check the place out. As I was walking around there was a Chinese couple that was also there. They thought me being there was about the funniest thing they had ever seen in their entire life. I thought that it was humorous that they were so amused by me so I took a picture of them. I took it through a tree so they are a little hard to see.

As I was walking around I got to thinking, I just paid that lady to read my fortune and I have no idea what she said. I walked back down to the bottom and showed her my camera and pointed to the cards she had, and she figured out that I wanted to take a picture of them. I took a picture of each one. If anyone can help me with a translation it would be awesome.

Thanks to everybody who has been putting up comments. I do have to say sorry to Deborah. I have not seen a single egg roll since I have been over here. At least not any that are at all similar to the ones back home. I think that egg rolls, like fortune cookies, are a creation of American Chinese restaurants. To Erica, thanks for the advice about looking out for the chicken because it is most likely dog. However, at most restaurants dog has its own section on the menu. Yes Lee, Dr. Q did give me some good sleeping pills that knocked me out on the plane. When I woke up the person next to me said I was snoring really loud. Also, help yourself to all the food I left at the apartment. I left you plenty of Jaeger in the freezer, but I am sure you already noticed that.

My classes have been great so far. I haven't had very many yet. So far I only have three classes. One is a new concept class that is for older students, age 15-20. The other two are little kids. The students in my youngest class is about five years old, and the other students are about nine. The kids are really cute but the little ones haven't figured out that I can't speak Chinese. They walk up and try to talk to me and I am not sure what to say back to them. I will talk more about my classes later on.

I have put some pictures up on photobucket.com. If you look on the left side of the screen there is a link that you can use to access them. If you have any questions or statements don't hesitate to post them. I have also had some problems posting pictures on here, check back and I will add more.

Quote of the Week:

I had a stick of Carefree gum, but it didn't work. I felt pretty good while I was blowing that bubble, but as soon as the gum lost its flavor, I was back to pondering my mortality. -Mitch Hedberg

The Eagle Has Landed

They do things different in China. I have been here almost a week, but it doesn't take very long to notice the differences. Little things that are difficult to describe. I arrived in Qingdao at 7:00 PM Monday night. My roommates decided to introduce me to the China and its culture by taking me out to eat at a very nice restaurant, KFC. Even though I have eaten at KFC many times before and also worked there for several months, the one here is very different. It is more of a sandwich shop with fried chicken sandwiches and French fries. After KFC we went to a bar to get a few beers. The local hang out where the teachers at my school like to go is a place that translates to Banana Bar. We order a round of Beers that costing 6 Yuan, or 75 cents each. That however is very cheap for beer in a bar. In nicer bars beers cost 15 Yuan, or $1.87. On the street in a store you can get a big bottle of the local TsingTao beer for 3 Yuan or 37 cents. Pretty affordable even for someone as cheap as I am.

The biggest problem that I have had while in Qingdao has been ordering food at restaurants. Fast food places are really easy because they have picture menus that allow me to just point at what I want. However, all they really have is fried food and I can only eat so much of that stuff, plus I didn't come to China to eat at KFC and McDonald's every day. About once a day I try to go to a restaurant and order some food. One example of me having a difficult time ordering occurred when I was exploring the city by myself. I was walking around Qingdao just doing some exploring and looking around the city. That day I was walking for six hours, partly because I wanted to see the city but mostly because I was lost. I was walking fairly close to the beach and got hungry and decided I should find something to eat. I found a place that was fairly nice and decided to stop in and get some food. I walk in and the waitress sits down a menu that has no pictures and only Chinese characters, which of course I can't read. I have a menu guide that I got out of a Chinese workbook(A gift from Stephanie Hudson) that has different dishes of food and ways to pronounce them. I took that out and picked something that looked good, I settled on a chicken dish and mumbled it to the waitress. She looked at me like she had no idea what I was saying. I decided to try something else so I ordered something with pork, and again she gave me a blank look. Next I tried to order some kind of beef noodles. On the third attempt she kind of gave me an expression that led me to believe that she knew what was going on. In a few minutes I discovered that she knew exactly what I was trying to order all three times. She came back and brought me three dishes one chicken, one pork, and some beef noodles. All three were generous portions and they all tasted amazing. I was barely able to eat any of it because there was so much. Needless to say that meal was not a cheap one. Each order was 20 yuan, or $2.50, in a very nice restaurant. 60 yuan is a ridiculous amount to spend on a meal in China.

I have only been here a week and I probably have 100 stories to tell. Check back often and I will put some up as often as I can.

I would have put this one up earlier but the internet was down for a while in my apartment. I put some pictures up on photobucket.com. I will put a link up on the right hand side of my blog. Also, for some reason I can't actually view my blog. When I type in the address I get an error message. I guess I was censored or something. I am still able to get on to edit and put up new posts and stuff but I can't check to see if all the pictures look right after I post.

Anyway post comments and drop me emails. I would really like to hear how everybody is doing back home!

Quote of the Week

I wrote a letter to my dad - I wrote, "I really enjoy being here," but I accidentally wrote rarely instead of really. But I still wanted to use it so i crossed it out and wrote, "I rarely drive steamboats, dad - there's a lot of shit you don't know about me. Quit trying to act like I'm a steamboat operator." This letter took a harsh turn right away... -Mitch Hedberg

Fam and Friends

No turning back now, I have my airplane ticket, my lunch packed up, my shoes tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight. Ok, for people who don't watch stupid comedies I ripped off Billy Madison to help me start this entry. The past few weeks I have been hanging around in Macon, and driving back and forth to Columbia to get immunizations, nine so far. This time back home has been well spent, giving me time to relax and see some friends and family before I head out. Living in Columbia it is easy to forget the kind of small town character that Macon offers, including; having strangers wave at you while riding in a car, people driving ten miles per hour slower than people drive in columbia, and most of all running into people I haven't seen in years at places like Church, the grocery store, the Hill (a local bar that is an institution in Macon),the pharmacy and similar social gathering locations that are essential in small towns.

Most people that I run into I haven't seen in quite a while and have not had the opportunity to tell them about my trip to China; and at first I was always interested to tell them about it due to my own excitement about the adventure. However, after my first week in Macon I discovered that I was having the exact same talk over and over again, several times a day. These conversations became a little menotinous but it was worth it to talk about my trip with interested people. Just encase I missed anybody, below I am going to outline a typical conversation about China.

Interested Person: Hey! I havent seen you in awhile what have you been up to?

Me: Oh, I just graduated from MU and I leave to teach English in China in a few weeks?

Interested Person: China? Are you serious? How long are you going for? Why do you want to go to China?

Me: (Since this is kind of a complicated question I just started making up random answers for people, a few are below)

A) Why not?
B) Because I like Chinese Food and Asian Women
C) People always told me I had squinty eyes and I figure I would fit in there
D) I am self conscious about being small so I figure I will be huge there
E) I don't know just felt like a change in senery

Intersted Person: Thats awesome! What a great experience

Me: Thanks, I am excited

Interested Person: (At this point the conversation is winding down and the person would offer me a bit of advice for my trip, or impart some of knowedge about China they have aquired upon me, again I have listed a few of the best ones below)

1) I hope you like rice!
2) There sure is a lot of people over there!
3) Dont get the Bird Flu
4) If you get the Bird Flu don't bring it back over here
5) Don't become Communist
6) If you go to Tiananmen Square don't stand infront of any tanks
7) Stay away from those Geisha Girl Places (Geisha Girls are Japanese)
8) You are going to eat some awesome Sushi (Again Japanese)
9) Do you know how to say hi in Chinese? "Konnichiwa" (I have learned that some people have difficulties distinguishing between Japanese and Chinese cultures)
10) When your year is up you are comming home!! COME HELL OR HIGH WATER!! (This one is by my Mother)

I kid around because you are all so awesome. These last few weeks have reminded me of how great my family and friends are. I am going to miss you all so much. I have so many good memories of the good times I have had with my Macon buddies, who have been my best friends since before I can remember, and going out with my college of Ed friends to the bars where they would force me to drink way to much. Getting to see all of my family at graduation was especially awesome, I mean, how many people can say that their grandmother learned some phrases in Chinese so that she could presnet me with her gift which was A Dummies Guide to Chinese Phrases. Which was awesome, however her writing the check in Chinese characters might have been a little overboard.

And a special thanks for Jenny for the scrap book she made for me to help remind me of all the amazing friends I have back home. Also thanks to everybody who contributed pictures and quotes to it. I really liked it a lot and I am going to show it off to all the friends I make in China. I don't want to get all sappy but I had a few tears.

Don't worry I will make my comeback tour to CoMo and Macon during the Summer of '07. I don't think I have a choice. If I wanted to stay longer I think my mom would pay people to have me kidnapped and brought back home.

Until then I am off to educate some Chinese kids on the finer points of the English Language! The next time I put up another post I will be in China!

Quote of the Week

There are a billion people in China. It's not easy to be an individual in a crowd of more than a billion people. Think of it. More than a BILLION people. That means even if you're a one-in-a-million type of guy, there are still a thousand guys exactly like you."
A. Whitney Brown, "The Big Picture"

P.S. I also would like it if you all could write comments to let me know how I am doing on the blog