Back to the land of unblocked Blogger!

A whole month of China! woops. It's been hot, sweaty, and busy. This month has been full of blocked blogger, health exams, visa mafan, moving, and goodbyes. The month has contained at least as many emotions, but has also been a time for me to really appreciate the love and friendship of those around me. As usual when overwhelmed by how to update such a range of experiences, I'll resort to the fruit of my camera. (Speaking of pictures, I just created a flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39173672@N04/)


Goodbye Christmas party in my apartment


A tasty dish


Me dancing


Visitor

I went to Qing Cheng Shan with a one of my students/friends and her family. It was a really nice weekend trip away from the city and filled with SiChuan culture and beautiful scenery. To begin with here's a bit of Chengdu culture for you-Food and Majang:






Typical Chinese breakfast: mantou (steamed bun), xi fan (rice porridge/water), egg, peanuts, and pickled vegetable


Not breakfast


A stone dragon


I hate when this happens



A thing



A building

I don't have yellow hair!

Several weeks ago one of my students had her hair cut. It looked really nice, so I complimented it. Next thing I know I'm sitting on a stage in a barber chair in front of a class of Chinese stylist hopefuls who are eagerly awaiting the metamorphosis of this particular yellow-haired foreigner. The result is ok. I know, i know, i should post pictures, but thankfully it was really just a trim.
I can't believe that it's nearly June! I have been in China for more than 6 months. This has been quite a busy month including the death of a fish, the visit of a good friend, a trip to Leshan to see the biggest sitting Buddha in the world, acceptance into Azusa Pacific's Master's program in TESOL (yes, i'm coming to California for about 3 weeks this summer), and attempts to keep classes real and fresh.
Here are some pictures!

Traditional American-like breakfast with Luke--complete with mangos, yogurt, bread...


...grape-flavored 'Smacks'?...


...and blueberry potato chips-essential to a traditional well-balanced breakfast.



Field trip!


He's big! (if you look in the background you can see the viewing deck and the tiny people on it)

So are the crowds (these stairs start level with the top of his head and end by his feet).

He even has big hair!

He's really big

I mean, Check out his hand!

Good thing I stopped to take this picture. ahahah, I can't stand the irony!!!

Look at these pretty and old carvings in the sandstone that you can see on the way down the stairs

I'm a sucker for pretty colors!

Chinese men wearing Lederhosen

Yeah, well. Kinda. I mean, they were lederhosen-like.

Perhaps you have surmised from the recent stagnancy of my blog that the stability of my internet connection has been questionable. I'm not even going to apologize.

Let me see if I can give you a quick summary of some interesting things that I have observed and experienced in the last week or so.

I have a confession to make. I am afraid that I have turned into 'that crazy dancing lady at the music festival with ribbons, piercings, and strategically smeared earth.' I'm sorry. It's just that one thing led to another. Let me explain: My friends and I went to the opening day of Chengdu's first-ever music festival, 'The Zebra Music Festival.' When we arrived I was already a bit of a mess from biking across Chengdu the day prior without having had a chance to wash my hair. Upon entering the grounds we encountered festival staff who were distributing bright orange and yellow ribbons. If you have ever met me, you probably know that I have a weakness for shiny and bright objects, so it was just a matter of time before I had accumulated quite a collection of ribbons which were promptly placed on all corners, fixtures, and handles of myself, my clothing, and my hair. Then I started dancing. Then the Sichuan news crew caught wind of my gyrations. Then they asked me if I would be willing to dance for some footage. So I did. Then I decided, 'what the heck so what if it's muddy? I'm going to do the worm.' Then a crowd gathered around me. Then people wanted to take pictures with me. The end.

The other day I had the honor of being invited to my student/friend's birthday celebration. We went out for hotpot. Some of the tasty treats that I was especially excited about were pig brain (who would have thought that boiling pig brains is a very delicate procedure?), congealed duck blood, and duck tongue. I thought it was really neat when I arranged the entire tongue assembly (muscles, tendons, etc) so that the actual tongue part stuck out of my mouth while I made 'quacking' noises. Would this be an appropriate instance to talk about situational irony?

Finally, Uncle Jim, I am sorry to debunk your counter-theory, but if you'll permit us to look more closely at the 'Charley Tuna' exhibit, you may be interested to observe that the aforementioned fish hero was pictured on the can of food grade tuna fish.
I will leave you with some pictures of my recent culinary adventure. I need to start carrying my real camera around with me...

Please excuse the unscheduled network disruption!

Chinglish Corner





As a recent star on my campus' television network, I taught everyone to make PBJ sandwiches ninja style! 杀杀杀杀!!!

















Speaking of food, here is a favorite snack among the Chinese people, and I even learned a new word: 爪子 (Zhua zi) which means 'claw.' Luckily it is also local dialect for 'What in chicken's feet do you think you're doing?' In this case it would be鸡爪子 鸡－ji (chicken)

RIP nameless red fish

One of my fish died. The red one. While volunteering at the Seattle Aquarium, I learned that a fish will die if you name it. Maybe my fish knew that I was trying to considering names and decided to die honorably before I could give it such a nominal scar. You would think that I had learned my lesson, but I'm still considering names for my black fish. Joel suggested, "Kitty." I think it has a nice ring, but I am still open to other suggestions.
Here is another video for your viewing pleasure. I am riding through downtown Chengdu on my new bike! Again I apologize for the poor quality of my phone's video.

Chinese humor Vol. 1, Issue 1

Cold jokes:

A mantou (steamed bun) was walking down the road when it got hungry, so it ate itself.

A banana was walking down the road, and it got very warm so it took off it's peel. Another banana came walking along and slipped.

There was a black cat who was out one black night when it fell into a black hole. What did it say?
-"Meow"

By popular demand.