New Year‘s Fireworks

When I thought about Chinese New Year, I thought parades, fireworks, dancing dragons, lanterns, and a gigantic, country wide celebration.  A party that surely rivals that in the west.  In fact, I have found that for the most part, the Chinese New Year is instead very traditional. I think of it like Thanksgiving for the west. Mostly families spend time together, and there weren't any lavish parties or dragons dancing! (Can you tell it was something I was begging to find?) I was hoping for a huge festival but it seems as though its very very traditional.

However, the bar I went to bought some ridiculously big fireworks and set them off in the street. Everywhere you looked, people were lighting off fireworks, so it was really cool to see the night sky lit up in all directions.  The video I made doesn't do the show justice, as the fireworks were SO loud. I was getting hit by shrapnel when trying to film the video - because these Chinese fireworks are the big mortar shells that most ordinary citizens in the US cant buy, but apparently its a good idea to allow everyone in China to have access to these mini sticks of dynomite! And the mighty mights?  More like thousands of miniature m80s... my ears were ringing for 2 days after.

Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐！

Tonight is Chinese New Year and for the Chinese people, that means loads of fireworks, dumplings, and family celebrations.  For me it means a ridiculous cab fare, a deserted city, and operation hibernation  (AKA Preperation for all restaurants and businesses to be closed for the next 3 days... and I'm conveniently out of food and clean water).  Tonight I raced down to the supermarket an hour before they closed to stock up on water, ground beef, veggies, Chicken flavored Cheetos (dont laugh - they are AMAZING) and beer.  You know, just the essentials to replenish my survival stockpile.  I sit here now with both my wallet and stamina dramatically emptier than before; a 200% cab fare hike affecting my wallet and my physical wellbeing drained after the 200 yard (felt like 200 thousand) walk carrying my weight in groceries.  Note to self - bring a suitcase to the market next time.

Tonight I am going to try my hand at making traditional dumplings.  I have made them once before with a friend, however, this will be my first attempt without a culinary guide.  I can't think of a better way to spend New Years then with a bottle of painfully strong rice alcohol (Baijiu - look it up, its killer), a plate full of dumplings, the ambience of bajiillions of fireworks brightening the evening skies and bombarding my eardrums, and oh yes, 4 bags of Chicken Cheetos.   Happy New Year (again) everyone.

And check out my Photo gallery.  I have updated some pics from the Christmas Season and also my trip to Hengshui, a city near Beijing, to join a traditional Chinese wedding.  I'm currently collecting my thoughts to blog that experience.. its a dooooozy :P

Scavenger Hunt Final Exams

** EDIT ** I have uploaded 200 of my favorite pictures to my gallery.  Check it out!  Leave a comment, what do YOU think?  

I just recently finished with the finals week from the 1st semester!  It was incredibly time-consuming and difficult, however, very interesting to experience this 'week-from-hell' from the teachers point of view.  I now know that the university is INCREDIBLY particular in how they want their final exams formatted - To the extent that the ink MUST be red, the left side of the paper must show the point awarded (+2)  , while the right side shows the points deducted (-2)  But since I didn't ask prior to giving the exam, they are stuck with my version until next semester.  I figure its better to give an interesting, useful, and unique final exam and apologize after the fact, than to ask for permission and be told no.  

For the final speaking exam, I divided each of my classes in to teams of 5 students.  Each team had at least 1 digital camera.  (Some of you know where this is going!)  I then gave them a list of vocabulary terms, slang phrases, idioms, proverbs, and other points of interest... things I had taught over the course of the semester.   They were to take a creative picture of each... the picture needed to portray the vocabulary term or phrase.  Then I assigned each team to create a PPT and present their pictures to the class.  In this way, I would be testing their speaking ability as well as their understanding of the vocabulary terms.  

I gave them complete freedom in creating their presentation.  They could act, create videos, use photoshop, use props, anything they wanted!  The most important thing to me was that they proved they understood the vocabulary.  This result, understanding of the material, is the same result as their boring, standardized tests.  The difference (I hope) is that with this format, the experience helps the students retain some of their knowledge.  In China where most university courses are lecture based, (and the final exam is worth 70% of the grade) the typical student crams a lot of information into their short-term memory, regurgitates it on the test,  and promptly forgets it the very next day.

The results were AMAZING!  It completely validated all the hard work I have done here, all of the long long hours preparing curriculum, lectures, teaching, correcting, reviewing....  I am so proud of my students.  

Most of the vocabulary terms on the test will seem random for the uninformed reader.  However, we had many classroom discussions, movies, and lectures that connected all of these seemingly random vocabulary topics into a coherent semester.  

Here is the scavenger hunt list.

New photos in my gallery

** EDIT ** Link should be working now, Thanks Mary ;)

Hey everyone.. just taking a quick break from correcting final exams to update my online photo gallery.  Check out these pics from last month.  Later I'll post a blog explaining the trip in its entirety, but I think the randomness is hilarious!

TEASER:  I get married, eat scorpions, play real-life Counterstrike, and experience the worst hang over of my entire life.  All in one University-sponsored vacation.  

For the rest of the new pics, CLICK HERE

Happy (much too early) New Year!

I am preparing a lesson plan for this week, using the 'Friends' TV show. It is hugely popular over here, used as a tool for English students to listen and comprehend "authentic" American English. I chose a holiday episode (season 6, episode 10 - "The Routine") to teach my students about some holiday traditions we have in the states. I plan to explain New Years traditions, the ball drop, and "Auld Lang Syne". While researching Auld Lang Syne, I learned quite a bit about the most popular song that no one really knows. This version on YouTube caught my interest and I loved the original Scottish rendition. Happy New Year friends, wish I could be there celebrating it with you all.



The song is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. Written by Robert Burns in the 1700's (some claim only partially written by him), it was first published in 1796 after Burns' death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scotish tune, "Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days."


TRADITIONAL LYRICS

Should old acquaintances be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

Chorus

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld Lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

Verse Two

And there's a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o thine
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang sine

Chorus (repeat)

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld Lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

-----

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

(Should old acquaintances be forgotten)
(and never remembered)
(Should old acquaintance be forgotten)
(For old long ago)

Chorus

(For old long ago, my dear)
( For old long ago)
(We will take a cup of kindness yet)
(For old long ago)

(And there is a hand my trust friend)
(And give me a hand of yours)
(And we will take of a good drink/toast)
(For old long ago)

(For old long ago, my dear)
( For old long ago)
(We will take a cup of kindness yet)
(For old long ago)

Wind wind go away

Oh. My. God. I thought the Pac NW was a cold place to reside during the holly jolly days of winter... While this may be true, my current city of Huangdao surely qualifies for the coldest place on mother earth. Located just off of the ocean, and between two (very nearby) mountain ranges, this university sits inside a literal wind tunnel. When I awoke this morning and prepared my fashion ensemble.. the misleading brightness that awoke me at 6:30AM led me to believe it would be warm. I wasn't expecting a balmy atmosphere, but I certainly wasn't prepared for what I found. 7:30AM as I walk to class, I am cursing the weather Gods because it is ABSOLUTELY FREEZING! This morning's temperature was a rigid nipple inducing 19 degrees, with a wind chill factor registering in the single digits.

"Damn the misleading brightness of the morning sun" I thought to myself as I walked to class wearing thin pants, a hooded sweatshirt, no gloves, all while attempting to eat an apple which was virtually freezing before my eyes.

Beer - The Social Lubricant

You can see all of the pictures from this trip (any many others) on my photo gallery website.

Hello everyone!  I hope to blog more often now, as I have found a technological backdoor to access this website.  I should have thought of this earlier, as this campus is full of tech savvy geeks, great at finding illegitimate programs online, or circumventing the 'great FIREwall of China'. 

October 1st.  It's my brothers birthday; very important to me, yes.  But to the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens who likely do not know or care about Cameron's celebratory day of initial existence, it means much more.  October 1st marks the beginning of the Chinese 'National Holiday' week, this year being modern China's (PRC) 59th birthday.  Think the 4th of July, for a week, only with a lot more fireworks and enough birthday cake to almost satiate Kirstie Alley. The university students are given the entire week off.  In fact, it is the single busiest travel period of the year as students return home and families get together.  Karen and I decided to travel to the Qingdao Beer Festival.  fortunate to be graced by the presence of some other Americans who were also teaching English in China.  

I say 'travel to' because to say we currently live in  Qingdao is a bit misleading.  It is similar to saying that you live in Seattle, when in fact, you reside on Bainbridge Island.  The small distract of Huangdao is a developing zone of Qingdao, and located across the water - a 45 minute journey by ferry.   It is much like the Seattle ferry, with cars below and passengers on the upper deck.   Armed with a poor quality, MS Paint, printed map of Qingdao, we landed and were off to find the Qingdao train station.  Before heading to the Beer Festival, we would first meet with some American colleagues, who are teaching in another Chinese city further south from us.  With no map index showing us distance, and all points of interest written in unintelligible Chinese, finding the train station was like beating my Chinese students in Ping Pong, damn near impossible. Asking the locals on the streets for directions was also futile, because my Chinese is disastrous.  I admit that my Chinese is not great.  And by not great I mean essentially on par with a 1st grader.  Which is sad because if he and I were to have a conversation, I'm pretty sure I would be the one left confused.  

After many embarrassing attempts at communication, we saw a mother and teenage daughter walking together.  Surely they would not laugh at our Chinglish, and attempt to offer directional advice.  I finally managed to convey the essence of my question after making “choo choo” sounds and pulling an imaginary horn - indicating that our destination of choice was the nearest train station.  They attempted to give us directions to the Qingdao station, but their strong dialect fell on deaf ears.  Their body language conveyed a feeling I know all too well, and I could sense their frustration with the inability to communicate even the simplest of directions.  Likely filled with a combination of pity and genuine concern, they walked with us ½ a mile to the train station.  Thank God for our native escorts and their help, as we realized we would have never managed to find the station on our own.

We had made an agreement with our American friends that we would meet at the train station at 7:00 PM.  We didn't have the foresight to further specify a meeting point, and at 7:05 when their train arrived, thousands of travellers poured out in every direction from the station.  A 360 degree mass exodus, making it impossible to spot an American face bobbing in the Chinese sea.  We bumped into Lynn, Ashley, and Kerrin completely by accident.  God, it was nice to see other foreigners (No offense Karen).  After 2 months in China, the feeling of seeing a friendly, familiar face was overwhelming.  The ability to speak English without over-emphasizing the pronunciation and sounding like a robot;  To have a conversation that doesn’t require tremendous amounts of effort; it was beautiful. 

  

From the Qingdao train station, we wanted to take a taxi to the beer festival.  From the map, it didn't look too far away.  We found a taxi willing to cram all 5 of us in (including our large hiking backpacks).  70Yuan - roughly $10 USD - sounded like a steal! Because Qingdao is very close to my home city of Huangdao, Karen and I were expected to be tour guides.  Due to our groups' collective poor ability to speak the native tongue, my linguistic skills would undoubtedly be put to the test.  Luckily, the drinking hour was imminent, and soon this social lubricant would facilitate fluent conversation! (If only in my own mind - eh Seung?)  When I translated "Beer Festival" for the taxi driver, It became "Pijiu Jie (啤酒节); little did I realize that it could also mean "Beer Street".  Rather than a 25 minute ride to the festival, we were instead driven about 5 minutes to the Qingdao Brewery.  I'm convinced that although my Chinese is poor, I'm sure the driver understood what we meant.  Regardless, we got hosed.  Maybe it was the fear of losing face in front of our American friends, or maybe it was my own stubborn pride, but I foolishly decided to argue with the cab driver in Chinese... a battle I was sure to lose. Shortly there after I paid him his 70 Yuan and began the hunt to wash down my rising embarrassment with a frosty cold one.  

Luckily the area surrounding the brewery was packed with people everywhere, as restaurants and their overcrowded patios spilled tourists along both sides of the street.  We were ushered into a small tent near a giant, Christmas lit Coconut which served as an keg room.  Here, we finally enjoyed our first Qingdao beer in China.  To make a longer story short, we misunderstood our waiter, WAY over paid for dinner,  (Crab?  Really Karen?  Did we need 2 Crabs?) and left to find a hotel.   

We couldn’t find a hotel to save our lives.  I went inside a well lit, hotelish building to ask if they had a vacancy.  After several dicey moments of charading the notion that I was looking for a room for the night, I realized I was in a brothel.  Hey, they said they had rooms and that I could spend the night... Karen didn't seem too fond of the idea.  Finally we found an overpriced hotel, booked their smallest room, snuck 5 people inside, and slept on the floor.

The next day we went to the actual beer festival.  Determined not to repeat our mistakes from the previous evening, we first wanted to find a hotel nearby the festival, in preparation for a late night.  Without going into the details, we spent 2 hours driving around in cabs looking for a vacant hotel room that wouldn't cost an excessive amount.  No hostels, no 2 star joints, only the gold laced, 5-star international chains that required the monetary equivalent of 2 of my limbs.  Defeated, we wound up back in the area of the city damn near our original hotel, paying MORE than we had the previous night.  

At last we arrived at the famous Qingdao Beer Festival.  A county fair, carnival-like experience that promised something for everyone.  There were carnival and kiddie rides for the young ones, and you can imagine how badly I wanted to climb inside the giant inflatable spheres and battle it out against some 5 year olds.  The festival also boasted elaborate automobile trade shows with several giant tents displaying the newest lines that VW, Audi, and Buick had to offer.  Each tent was blasting different techno music, in an apparent competition in the attempt to burst our eardrums.  




There were also adult carnival rides, each with hour long lines.  In China, there are 55 minority groups assimilated into the Chinese community.  Many were represented at the beer festival, with food stands selling kabobs and fried seafood.  The fair grub was actually quite delicious, if you didn't ask what you were eating.  Shortly after finishing one particularly tasty kabob, I realized I was probably eating Bambi’s mother.  I should have known better since there was a melancholy stuffed Doe face blankly staring at the line of impatient, hungry customers. 

 

Then there were the beer tents, my favorite destination.  Of course there were many drunken foreigners making a spectacle of themselves, it seemed as though the Chinese participants loved seeing the foreign people make asses out of themselves.  And the college aged foreigners were usually more than willing to oblige.  Each beer company had their own techno blaring tent, complete with an extravagant performing stage, which was surrounded by neon, blinking spotlights and massive, blaring speakers.  The drunk foreigners ran on stage and danced with performers before being physically removed by event staff.  I drank my 100Yuan stein of beer and watched from the sidelines, my years of table dancing, drunken rowdiness behind me.  Not true for the Japanese businessmen however!  

As the night wore on, they became the attraction!  Peer pressuring each other to pound full pitchers of beer, dancing on tables, and blowing huge amounts of money on the bidding auctions being held on stage (in their defense, many of the items they won were pretty cool, expensive looking Calligraphy scrolls, but likely worth no where NEAR the exorbitant amount of money the ponied up).  They noticed blond hair, blue eyed Ashley standing next to Kerrin and myself... and the peer pressure took a whole new twist.  

It wasn't long before random people began cheersing us, buying pitchers of beer, and urging us to drink on!  Once people had consumed enough, it was picture time.  Our new Chinese friends had quite a bit of faith in my drunken, baby holding ability.  The coolest thing happened while we were there at the Beer Festival... a group of Chinese kids, around our age, invited Karen and I to sit with them.  One of our new friends was in the Chinese Navy, stationed on a ship in the Qingdao port.  Can you guess the name of his ship?  The "MT Kirsten".  Seriously.  You can imagine how shocked I was!  We must have taken an additional 30 pictures with random Chinese festival goers before meeting another group of students our age.  We escaped out the back door of the tent, found an abandoned picnic table, and played 'Tippy Cup'.  An American university drinking game being played on a Chinese Coca Cola sponsored picnic table 6000 miles away. 

 

Finally we decided it was time to leave.  We returned to our overpriced hotel room and again I slept on the floor, although this time because I was drunk and decided it would be a great idea, not because of the lack of bed space.  

Was meeting our Chinese naval friend that night a mere coincidence, or a symbolic display of fate?  As I write this blog entry tonight, I like to think of myself as the SS Kerstan.  A U.S. ship, temporarily stationed in a remote port halfway across the world; for one cannot find new oceans if he doesn’t have courage to leave the shore.

You can see all of the pictures from this trip (any many others) on my photo gallery website.