Social Night BBQ

Last night's social night theme was BBQ. Here are a few pics. One is of me, Marty, Esteban, Justin, and Francisco. Marty is my Aussie roommate, Justin and Francisco are teachers from California, and Esteban is from Ecuador trying to find a teaching job in Yangshuo.

This is me and Joanna, one of my 1D students.

The one below is of me and Patience, a chinese teacher.

Solo TV Tower

I decided to take a quick trip up the tv tower karst today by myself. I figured I could use the exercize and I thought the views would be better today than they were the first time I went. They were a little better, but it was pretty cloudy and even rained a little on me. It only took around 30 minutes to get to the top and less than 20 to get down this time. I guess doing it in the middle of the afternoon is much easier than trying it after a long night like I did the first time. The first picture is of me enjoying the view, along with my

Liquan beer and a chocolate bar. The others are of the town and two tombs near the trail.

I'm Official

There are four rock climbing shops in Yangshuo, and after having some store owners laugh and say no way when I asked if they had my size shoes for sale, I found some at the last shop I stopped at. My room for bargaining for them was none since they knew that I couldn't find my size anywhere, and that I didn't want to order any since I wouldn't be able to try them on first. So, here are my new shoes, light blue with neon green laces. They're super retro looking, but I actually kind of like them. They're only last year's stock, so they were obviously made this way and not just pulled out of the time drawer from a 1980's rock climbing box.

We went back to wine bottle today, and for the second day in a row the weather was great. I was with Francisco, Jon, and Justin. The routes today were super hard, a 5.10D and 5.11-way over my head, which is the reason I didn't finish either one. But I still got some practice in, learned some techniques, and learned and actually belayed Fran and Justin. Here are a couple pictures of Jon. These show a little more of the aspect as to how high it is. You'll definitely need to click and enlarge in order to find him on the wall.

Also, another picture of just the surrounding countryside.

Guilin

A few of us took a trip to Guilin on Saturday, the city I flew into from Beijing. It has an estimated population of around 1.3 million and is the only city near Yangshuo with any size. But, all the students say Guilin is a really small city with only 1 street. Maybe for Chinese standards, but it's a much bigger city than what I'm used to.

Justin was wanting a new laptop, so he invited me, Francisco, Eiki- a student friend, and Tao- the IT guy at Omeida, along with him. The completely full bus ride there took about an hour and 45 minutes. Tao speaks local dialect so we got tickets for 10 kuai apiece. This sort of upset Eiki because he said he paid 40 kuai one time because he speaks the northern dialect of Mandarin.

*As a side note- there are usually three prices given in Yangshuo- the highest is to the foreigner, middle is to the Chinese tourist, and the cheapest price is given to the local person.

So, anytime the bus driver needed a smoke break, which was more than one occasion, he pulled over for a break. We stopped several times to pick people up from the side of the road, and many other times at bus stops in the small villages between here and Guilin.

We got off the bus and onto a city bus once we arrived in Guilin. Of course, there were no seats and since I'm the giant American, I stood with my neck bent because the ceiling on the bus was about 4 inches shorter than I am. This caused a stir of laughter from the Chinese on the bus, as well as amongst my friends. Sorry I don't have a picture.

We went to a shopping center where Tao has friends that work for a computer store. This place was crazy. Floor after floor of computer stores, cameras, speakers, etc. It was like a Best Buy on steroids. I found a 220 V ac adapter for my camera battery charger, they wanted 65 kuai, I gave 50. It seems strange, but you can even bargain at these types of stores as well. Justin got the price of his computer down a few hundred kuai, Fran bargained for an 8 gig jump drive, and we also got a version of the new OS Windows 7 (more than likely pirated).

While we were waiting for them to load the english version of the operating system, Eiki and I went 'eye shopping' as he called it. It was good to finally see a part of China where I'm the only foreigner around. Everytime we walked by people Eiki would say, "watch watch watch, all the girls look at you." He said it was because I was a very tall and handsome white man. I liked the compliment, but I thought it was just because I was the only foreigner there.

While we were walking around, Eiki's dog nose senses started going crazy and he smelled something that he said he must have. Here's a picture of the street food vendor we ate at with small birds and squid on skewers. We had the squid and spice, very good.











Here's another picture of Eiki over looking the Li River with mountains in the background.














Here's a picture of Justin on the bus with his new laptop.

The ride back wasn't as bad, it probably only took an hour or so. We only stopped a few times at bus stops to let people off. So it ended up being a long day, but it was good to get away from Yangshuo for awhile and see a little of the city life. I think next Saturday we're going to do the opposite and head out to Xingping. It's considered one of the most beautiful places in China, so much that it covers the back of the 20 kuai bill.

Rock Climbing 101

Me, Jon, Francisco, and a student, Bill, all went out to wine bottle today for what would be my first time to climb. It was only around 40 °F and raining on and off, so my hands had a tough time adjusting at first. Jon was our lead climber, and since there were 2 inexperienced climbers, we only had time to get in 2 lines for the day. Here are a few pictures...you'll probably need to click to enlarge them so that you can see the climber.

These first 3 are of Jon setting the line for the 5.8.

These next three are of me on the 5.10B line.

And the last two are of Bill.

A Worldwide Night

Until about three weeks ago, I considered myself somewhat of a traveler. Even though I've never even traveled outside of America until now, I have visited around 20 states and can never seem to stay put. Considering my university was 550 miles from my hometown, yet still in the same state, I would say that being from Texas means you can do quite a bit of traveling without ever technically leaving your backyard. But, now that I'm in China, it seems like every person I meet has lived in or at least visited several different countries. I'm now to a grand total of 2. Last Friday night, I was sitting at a table in a bar on west street that included myself, from Texas, Justin and Francisco from California, Marty from Sydney, Australia, Yogev from Israel, Simon and Johnny from Leeds, England, Darcy from Shenzhen, China, Eiki from Harbin, China, Jen from Toronto, Canada, and Robert from the Netherlands. Not very often can you say that. This wasn't just a one night thing, I meet people from all over the world all the time. A couple nights ago I played pool with Camilla from England, her Chinese friend (with a thick British accent) Jun from Shanghai, and Tony from China.

I now have two roommates, Marty from Sydney and John from Ohio. John is a pretty experienced rock climber so I think this weekend I'm renting some equipment and heading out to do my first outdoor climbing. I'll let you know how it goes.

More to come...

E-mail Pics

google12969e7456a0f54c.html Got an e-mail from Dimple a couple days ago with a few pictures. Got a message from Vincent, Eric sent some pics, and I also received a postcard in the mail from Eric. So here are a few from their cameras...a couple are at west street, one is of me and Eric by the Li River, and the other is the group by the Li River- they made me stand

on the sloping part of the bank so I wouldn't look

as tall.

The End of An Era

Students come and students go here at Omeida. It's not uncommon to have 10 new students come in on a weekend, and at the same time see 10 more leave. They can stay for however long they want to sign a contract for. Some may ink for 6 months or a year, and others as short as a week.

So around 8 A.M. this morning, Eric and Vincent left on a bus to head back to Beihai. They were only here for a few weeks to study during their university's new year holiday, and will start back to class on Monday. And since Robin left last weekend, the last of my first crew of friends has now gone.

I met these guys the first day I arrived at Omeida and stepped out of the taxi to self introductions from all of them. They invited me out the next night and ever since then I've spent most of my time with them- everyday for lunch and dinner, weekend trips, etc.

So, last night a group of us went out for dinner and 'happy' (what they call fun). We took quite a few pictures in front of the school before we left for the restaurant. Here's one, from left to right, with Sonny, Vincent, Nancy, Eric, Me, and Freeman in front...

Dinner was nothing short of exceptional as always. The picture shows two types of beer fish (one spicy, and one spicy spicy), beer chicken, potatoes, and cabbage...we also has green vegetables and a sugar bread dessert that came out after the picture was taken. Dinner usually isn't just dinner, it's an event or an occasion. So, we ordered 10 or 12 of the 24oz local beers and just talked, ate, and drank, and made cheers, or gang bei, to Eric and Vincent to have a safe trip and happy lives. They taught me more Chinese, I taught them more English. So now, women shi hen peng you- we are all great friends. Here are some more pictures of us...one is Sonny, Me, Vincent, and Eric. The other is of Eric, Vincent, Jenny, Sonny, Sunny, and Nancy.

After a couple hours at the restaurant, we headed for KTV, one of the karaoke bars in town. And again, with no surprise like the first time, it was an experience. The Chinese love their karaoke. We had our room, beer, snacks, fruit platter, and just sang at the top of our lungs for 3 or 4 more hours. The English selection is prettty limited, and since all Chinese seem to love Backstreet Boys, I was forced to rock out to 'Everybody', 'I want it that way' and 'Larger than Life.' I also sang some Semi-Charmed Life, Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl, and Michael Bolton's Dock of the Bay.

We all vowed to keep in touch, everyone hugged and made pinky promises to make a trip to Beihai in June to visit, then we said our goodbyes. I then actually ended up going to a different karaoke bar and joining 2 American teachers, a guy from the Netherlands, and 4 other students for the rest of the night.

So, although three weeks isn't exactly an era, it's still the end of something. But, I've now begun to network. I'll have a couch to crash on and a local tour guide if I ever make it to Beihai, Shenzhen, Nanning, or Changsha. All the students and teachers are great at Omeida, and I have several good friends here and look forward to making many more.

I'll truly miss these guys. Eric says I am his brother, his American brother, and his first foreign friend, and the same goes for me in return. He's given me a Chinese name, Zi Xuan, and said that I can take his family name, Li, since we are brothers. In only three weeks, we've created the type of friendship that it may take some people a lifetime to make, and I hope we keep in touch for a long time to come.

Every Dog Has Its Day

I think most people in America think that anything running around in China is going to get snatched up and eaten. Do they eat dog here? Yes. And cat and horse? Yes again. But that doesn't mean the stray dog running around my apartment will just disappear one day because someone got hungry. Plenty of Chinese people have pet dogs, cats, birds, etc. the same as in America. I see people walking their golden retrieves and pugs and poms everyday. A lot of the Chinese are actually against eating dog, I guess that's why I've never seen them cleaning one out on the street like they do chickens and ducks. There's usually only one type of dog that they eat. 'Wolf dog' Eric called it. It's the only breed that is good for eating. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, I'm sure in poorer villages in poorer provinces they may stretch the limits a little more on what they eat. I know I've seen pictures of people eating a rat dish here in Yangshuo.

For the past couple of weeks, Eric has been telling me how delicious dog is. Everytime we walk by a dog he jokingly says 'mmmm, my dish.' So, tonight we did just that, I had my first taste of dog meat. And to be honest, it's really not that dog-gone bad. My favorite? Not by any means, but I definitely would have it again, especially after how hungry and dog tired I was today. It's a lot better than a few of the foods I've tasted here. (The piece of meat I'm holding up in the picture is tail). But it's a dog eat dog world out there, who knows what I'll try next.

More to come

Moon Hill

Me, Eric, and Vincent rode our bikes about 8 km out to see and hike up to the famous Moon Hill today, or Yue Liang Shan. Even though it's one of the most visited areas near here, we probably saw less than 20 people while we were hiking up the trail to the hill.

Before hand, we stopped to see the Baiyan area, the village where Liu Sanjie lived. It's an attraction, same as moon hill, so you have to pay to get in. The finalists for the Miss Tour Guide China were there on a photo shoot, so I joined in on the action (no worries Ryan, I also have close ups).

While at Baiyan, I bought a couple gifts to send home (surprises, just hope they fit). We had lunch at the village near moon hill- snails, veggies, and beef stir fry, check out the picture.

The hike up to the bottom of the hill was pretty steep, but didn't take too long, then we continued on to climp to the top. It was pretty cloudy today so the views weren't the greatest.

I also learned quite of bit of Chinese today. My students have been teaching me at least 2 sentences or phrases everyday and a few useful vocabulary words.

So, when the women at moon hill started trying to sell me water for 5 kuai or post cards all spoken in English, my previously learned 'bu yao le' came in handy. I also tried out 'wo bu huei ying yu' on one lady and she laughed and said 'you don't speak English!?'