Hello My Name is Ryan and I'm From Missowri

Before you all start to jump over me about my misspelling of the word Missouri, let me state that I did that on purpose. I pulled this picture from Leewen's website. Leewen is the school that I work at. There is also a giant sign outside of the building that has my picture with the great state of Missouri spelled "Missowri." If anyone was worried about my spelling before coming to China that should help you to relax.

Everything has been going great. It is summer vacation for the Chinese students. They use their time much different than we do back home. Most of my youth was spend playing baseball at Jackson street park or being lazy on the couch. Chinese students however, spend there summers taking private classes, like the ones my school offers. Because of this I have been working 6-8 hour days six days a week. I am very ready for summer break to get over so I can slow down a bit. I have been told that after the week is over I will work less than twenty hours a week and mostly on weekends--much more my pace. Due to my busy schedule I have not been able to get myself into any situations worthy of writing about on my blog, which has caused them to come slowly. I do, however, have one that you might find a little interesting.

I realize that I have mentioned beer a lot on this blog, but, I feel that I must again bring it up. The next few weeks Qingdao is hosting an International Beer Festival. I am told that it is very famous throughout China and brings in lots of tourist. On Monday I got out of class at 3:15 and decided that I wanted to check it out. All of the other teachers work later on that day so I went alone. My students told me which bus I had to take, and it was about a thirty minute ride. While I was on the bus I met a guy from the U.K. who was in town by himself for the beer festival. I really lucked out because we walked around and sampled some of the beers. There were dozens of tents with beers from all over the world. These weren't little tents like you might see at the Bevier Homecoming, but with enough tables to seat over a hundred and a stage where they played lots of Chinese pop music. However, I was a little disappointed when I walked in and the first tent I saw was Pabst Blue Ribbon. I eventually settled in at the Budweiser tent, for nostalgia sake more than anything. I used my limited Chinese to try to get a good deal on beer from the waitress. "Bai wei lai zi mi su li zhou, wo lai zi mi su li zhou, bai wei pian yi ma." Which translates into "Budweiser is from Missouri, I am from Missouri, Budweiser should be cheap." I am not sure if that is the way she understood it but that is what I thought I was saying. I have found that when it comes to me speaking Chinese, what I think I am saying and what I am actually saying are two very different things. Needless to say, she didn't give us any deals. The guy from the U.K. was a nice guy. He had been teaching at a small city in the south of China for eleven months and was doing some traveling before he went back home. He left the next day so I didn't get to hang out with him very much.