Christmas Pictures

Just some Christmas pictures from China.

CHRISTMAS TIME

It has been a while since I have posted. Some of the delay is because things here have settled into a routine for me, most of the things I used to see with wonder are now common place. Other reasons are final exams, lack of internet in my residence and a more sedentary life because of the weather. Enough excuses.

I have pictures of Christmas in China and will post them later this week.

I am amazed at the prevelance of Christmas here in China. Most major stores, including SchlockMart, have Christmas displays. It seems that the Chinese believe that all foreigners celebrate Christmas. I do not think they realize the correlation of Christmas with the purported birth of Christ (I will not activate the comments for this entry). I have received numerous boxes of Dove chocolates as Christmas presents and, I have not opened a single one. My new pig out food are peanuts, can't get enough of them.

There are Christmas displays everywhere, most of them bad. Some of the trees are hilarious. And, you have not laughed until you have seen a 130 lb Chinese man dressed as Santa Claus.

The spirit of being nice to others is one of the good benefits of being in China. Everyone seems to be in a better mood. No bad attitudes from shoppers however, I have not been in SchlockMart on a weekend in three weeks. Things may be different in that pit. I will not say I do not go there, they have bottles of Johnnie Walker for about $16.00 US, I am lucky I don't live down the block.

Things may change for me. I have job offers to go to other schools, one of them would double my salary. Until this afternoon I was not giving them serious consideration, today they changed the way I am reimbursed for expenses. I can afford them now but, they change the rules in the middle of the game: Why should I show loyalty and honor the remainder of my contract?

I have to cut this short. Some students want to meet me and give me a Christmas present; I hope it is not more Dove chocolate. A huge Snickers bar would be GREAT.

Hope everyone has/had a good Christmas. If you do not get a call from know that I am thinking of all my friends.

Terry

I am working Christmas Day

Nan Chang








Nan Chang






























Hong Kong
Hong KongHong Kong

Hong Kong


Disregard what I have written about the order of the pictures. When I uploaded them, the order was jumbled. Figure them out.

Here are some more pictures of Hong Kong. The city is so clean, the indigenous people are no nicer than mainlanders but, the city is so clean. When I was in Hong Kong, I got lost. Three Chinese people were unwilling to help me, luckily there are a lot of westerners I was able to to talk with and get help from. I have asked several Chinese people about this and have been told that it is common in China, people do not help strangers and, they may help people they know but it is uncommon. Life is so hard here they will deliberately not help anyone. And, when it comes to westerners (I think that should be treated as proper noun) they are afraid of using the English skills they have learned so, they do not try.

The pictures I am posting are of the harbor area and downtown. I will return to Hong Kong during spring festival and take more pictures and, I will go to the top of the mountain on which the island derives.

Back at school.

None of the Westerners have heat. This building was originally built for students so the wiring is not capable of handling large electricity demands. (the story is that Mao Tse Tung decreed that parts of China south of a certain line did not require heat and that parts north of that line did not require any cooling systems) Every time a heating unit is turned on it activates the circuit breakers. This makes it tougher because all of the buildings here are built from concrete and have no insulation. Those of us that have space heaters use them, those without use more blankets and heavy clothing. A space heater only heats its immediate area.

Finals are coming up. LOL. I was told to have my final exams AND retests ready by the 17th of December. They will be ready and I start reviewing with the students on the 10th of the month. Reviewing is telling the students exactly, yes exactly, what is on the test. Otherwise they will fail and the teacher must give a retest in February. 20 percent of my test can be answered by reading the remainder of the test, I have been told that it is still too hard.

I am a klutz but not bad enough to break a key of in a lock that works correctly. That is what happened to me yesterday. Three time I have been told that it is not that persons job to find someone to fix the problem and, our minders are not answering their cell phones and text messages. This is not an “I love China” day.

The foreign community lost 2 of their numbers this week. Turstin and Amir returned to Germany this week. However, we have met other ones to take their place. The more Westerners I meet the more gay people I find. And no sex for me, the Finnish girl made a show of being with a Chinese guy when I saw her last week.

We went to a Brazilian barbeque last week, it was great. 12 of us ate animal flesh for an hour before we realized there was a salad bar. LOL. Lamb, chickenr pork, beef and salmon. Te salmon tasted old, it was sushi style, so, it was only tasted. Now we are back to eating leaves, roots and rice or noodles. Hey I weigh less than 100 kilos, at this rate I am going to need a body lift. My clothes are sagging, I feel like those teenagers that run around in baggy clothes but, I keep my ass crack covered. Nice mental picture, huh.

There is a bar here that gives free Heineken to Westerners, our group of twelve was given a case. And, as I walked around the bar, Chinese people with whole bottles of Johnnie Walker Black kept refilling my glass. I like that bar.

If you come across the movie Bicycle Thieves, it is Italian from around WWII, watch it. It is a good movie and seems to correctly portray life at that time there and current life here. Life is harder in a lot of places. Times have not changed.
In spite of Bush, America is so very, very good.

I will add to this later.

A blanket and space heater only stop some of the cold. Cold weather, concrete walls, wood vinyl flooring and wet air are hard to handle.

It is 10:00 Saturday night and I am going to bed. Exciting life here in China. LOL, there is fun to be had if you go out. Funny thing is the Chinese go home by midnight, so few of them and mostly Westerners (140 or so in town) are out later than that. That can mean trouble, stuff I can’t/won’t write about here.

The pictures following this are of Nan Chang. Some are of sculptures by the river, the others are of the central part of the city. The pirate ship is in central Nan Chang and is in front of a new building. To prove Americans are nuts, I rode my bike down the path between the stairs. Scared the shit out of me.


Terry