Misty China colored memories

Favorite memories of China.Xi'An...Terra-cotta soldiers.Xi'An tour group.Old man in small village.Medicine man in small village.Buying my China birds.Karaoke with my friends Gary and Mr. FishbirdAnd JaerAnd Angel.Meeting the new teachers in town.My Monk.Mr. Ma La TangAnd his family.KennyChangxing Middle School Administrators.Karaoke night (again).Dinner with friends, Lilly and Jenny.Teaching

Life in the Big City

Well this is my city....Indianapolis. It's the capitol of Indiana.The population is about 3 million (last time I checked). Thats about the size of Huzhou.It's really a great place...very clean.We have a canal (like a river) running through it.It's a great place to ride bikes, go for a run or just take a walk.This is a monument in the very center of the city.It has lots of water fountains around

Life in American

Hello to all my friends back in China.As promised I am going to post some pictures of my life back in America.But first I have a few more pictures of my last days in China.Here I am having lunch with my good friend Gary and his family.And you can see Mr. Fishbird has joined us.Here is Gary's girlfriend Angel and his mother.They all thought my beard made me look old.On one of my last trips into

525,600 minutes in China (1 year)

Well as of June 24th I'll have been here in Changxing China for one year.And what a year it's been!I've been to a lot of exciting places.Met a lot of wonderful people.Ate a lot of strange food.And learned what it's like to live in a different country with a different culture.You don't learn as much about a place just visiting it for a couple of weeks.You live there for a year and you become part

New Friends and the Count Down

Well my time here in China is just about up.I haven't got an official day as to when my last class is, but I just take that in stride...China you know.Anyway, I am looking forward to coming home.It's been one of the most interesting years of my life, to say the least!Last week when I was in Huzhzuo, I bought a DVD called "The Painted Veil."http://wip.warnerbros.com/paintedveilIt takes place in

The Comprehensive "You know You've Been In China Too Long..." List.

My Canadian friend Paul from Hainan, sent me a list the other day.This is a list to let you know when you've been China too long.I found it quite amusing.These are some of the cultural differences between China and the rest of the world.Things that you just get used to here in China.You may not get some of them unless you've spent some time in China. Those who have, will get a kick out of

Almost a Year

Well, as of May 24th I'll have been in China for 11 months.Almost a year of teaching English.The only thing I have taught before coming to China was sculpture.I would like to take this moment to apologize to all of the teachers that have tried to teach me anything in the past.There is such a thing as KARMA. I've found that out first hand!I was not an ideal student when I was young(big shock...I

Hainan, a Week in Paradise

WOW...What a week!Last week the school had it's annual spring break.Another week free of teaching.I had talked with Denise, the gal that I hung out with in Yang Shuo. She was talking about going horseback riding near Lhasa. That sounded like a great adventure. After I spent some time on-line doing some research on the various companies that provided this type of adventure, I found that most

Hu Zhuo trip

Well, Spring is here, and China is just as beautiful as America when it is in full bloom!Here is a photo my friend Harry took. I borrowed it from his website.A couple of weeks ago the students had a singing competition.They really like this kind of stuff...No classes!Each class took their turn and preformed a song that they have been practicing in their spare time for weeks.Here they are waiting

Weekend in Wu Xi

Well, last weekend Eric and myself took a trip to a town called Wu Xi. It's about two hours away by bus.It's located right on Tai Lake...just like ChangxingBut it's much larger and much more developed.We met up with a friend that I made in Yang Shou. Her name is Claudia and she's from Austria.She is teaching German and English in a school about an hour and a half away from Changxing.Claudia went

Kung Fu II

Today I went to meet up with my friends Eric and Jaer for lunch.During lunch we decided to go to the Kung Fu school to visit Irene and check out the school.They are in the middle of building onto the school.The new addition includes a temple and a learning center that is more like a museum.But that didn't stop the school from it's daily routine.We went to visit Irene, but she had gone into

I'm back from Yang Shuo...Continued...V

Long Shen was such a beautiful place, I could have spent a week there.I'll probably come back here again some day.I mean, look at this place!!!After hiking up and down these amazing mountains for two days we decided to make our way to Guilin.So we headed back to the cabin where our hosts were preparing the chicken for this evenings dinner.At least here you know where your chicken has been.Not on

I'm back from Yang Shuo..Continued...IV

Like I said..."Travel in China this time of year is just CRAZY!!"On our way to Guilin from Yand Shuo, the bus would stop and pick up people along the way. When we ran out of seats they would hand out little plastic stools to the people as they got on and they would sit in the isle. Nobody seemed to mind.Even this little melon head had to mess with the foreigner."What are you looking at?"Another

I'm back from Yang Shuo..Continued...III

The next day...Bikes again.And...Hot air ballooning!Again...very cheap...80 yuan. (10 bucks)In America you can't even get in a hot air balloon for $10.This was my first time in one of these things.Because of the karst mountains, they couldn't just let us float around.They kept us attached to a rope and took us up about 1,500 ft. or so for about 15 or 20 minutes.Later on we ended up down by the

I'm back from Yang Shuo...Continued...II

After a while in the Jade Dragon Village, we decided to head down the road to a place called Shangri-La.There are a lot of places called Shangri-La in China.But not before grabbing a shot of the town water buffalo and her calf.We caught some rain on the way, so we pulled over at a bridge and hung out under some trees until the rain subsided.Shangri-La is kind of like a Chinese amusement park that

I'm back from Yang Shuo..Continued

So in Fu Li, they have a local market that I just had to check out.It was similar to the Fear Factor market in my hometown.Fresh chicken in a basket.Picking out dinner.Bundled up tight.Another local market. This one had clothes and other goods.Fu Li is supposed to be a great little town. I prefer great little villages.This place really didn't have too much to offer.I was trying to be

I'm back from Yang Shuo

Hello everybody.I just got back from my 2 weeks vacation.Traveling in China this time of year is just CRAZY!!This is the time of Chinese Spring Festival or the Chinese new year.Everybody in China is traveling to see their relatives.Many people work in different cities to support their families.So the trains are bus stations are packed with people trying to get tickets to go home.I was planning to

English Competition and Oops, We Did it Again!

Today the school had it's annual English competition for the Chinese English teachers.We had 28 teachers from from the Junior 1 2 an 3 grades.It took about 2 and a half hours.It started about 9am.I teach the junior 1 students, so some of these teachers I haven't had the chance to talk with very much.So this was the first time to hear some of them speak (English).I was very impressed to say the

Chinese Spring Break

OK...The exams are over and all the papers have been graded.So, the headmaster of the school invited some of the teachers out for dinner.One of the favorite pass times here in Changxing is to go out to dinner with friends and family.I've managed to get by for 7 months here in China without doing much drinking.And I mean serious drinking where everybody had to slam their drinks and then they fill

Another weekend at Hangzhou

Well, this week we have final exams at school.I spent about 1 minute with each student asking them questions from the last 5 units.I then gave them grades based on their pronunciation and speaking ability in general.Most of the students did very well.I am quite impressed with the grammar and spelling abilities of these kids.The only thing they lack is the knowledge of how to pronounce some of the

Xi'an and Beyond: Final

That night, on the way home we saw a wake that had been going on for three days.But tonight they had priests doing a ceremonial thing.Right there in the street, next to the Kodak shop.The next morning I was up with the sun, taking more morning photos.Laundry time.Someone is taking an early morning bamboo boat ride.Boats heading up river.I love the effect of the morning fog on the river.A shot

Xi'an and Beyond: Continued

We made one last village stop on our trip down the Li River.The people were so nice and glad to see us.These people had a pool table in their front yard.I think they used it more as a dining table.Home grown bacon.When we got back to the boat, our captain was sitting on a bamboo raft with another guy.He motioned for us to get on.I wasn't sure what was going on, so I called Jerry.He said to hop on