Ni Hao

motorcycle taxi!

2009-04-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

so, tonight i was desperate enough to catch a ride home on a motorcycle taxi. everything was ok, the driver was very safe. i just missed the last train home, and my phone just ran out of minutes, tonight!! what luck?! don't tell my dad, a.k.a mr. safety, that i wasn't wearing a helmet! brian

japan

2009-03-29T05:14:00.000-07:00

ok, we went, we saw, it kicked our @$$! we travelled with our friend holly, a third grade teacher at our school. it was a great time, and we've never been to a more photogenic place. there were beautiful things everywhere we looked. we stayed in kyoto, home to 17 unesco locations. it's difficult to find a street without an old temple or shrine on it. we took a day trip to nara, an hour train ride to the south. nara has a few famous temples as well. there is an area where deer roam freely and we can buy biscuits to feed them. later in the week we took a 2 day trip to tokyo. this is a huge city of about 12 1/2 million people. we only scratched the surface of its surface. we ended up following a plan B which meant sleeping at an internet cafe. it's another story for the grandchildren i guess. throughout the week we experienced so many things, our heads were spinning! in one day we witnessed a funeral at a cemetery, a wedding at a temple, a baby's baptism at another, and a birthday in a park. we sat through a buddist prayer ceremony at a temple, a strange art installation (see the video), fed deer in nara, fed monkeys in kyoto, and had many geisha encounters that the lady at the ryokan said we wouldn't have! a ryokan is a traditional japanese house. yes, we slept on the floor on mats, and yes, it was the best sleep of our lives. that's it for now, more stories will come to mind later. it was really overwhelming, so as usual, we'll let the photos speak for themselves.

beijing, pt.1

2009-03-09T03:48:00.000-07:00

we're going back in about a month, so expect a part 2 coming soon! we were there for a very short, but busy 48 hours. we walked a round a bit the night we arrived, even though by the time we checked in it was about 11. we woke up early the next day to walk to and tour the forbidden city. it really is a city within a city, it's huge! we only covered about half of it. if you're curious, google map it to get a sense of how big it is. after that we walked a bit to the south to see the temple of heaven. by the evening we were exhausted, but yes, we walked more. we checked out the neighborhood where we stayed, had tea, and called it a night. the next day we woke up really early to go to the flea market. we bought some artwork and a few other collectible items. we went back to the hotel to check out and then took the subway to another part of town to get to an indian restaurant for lunch. i know, no duck?! kristina doesn't want to eat duck, but i do. next time we'll find a place where i can get the duck and she can get something else. by the time we were finished with lunch we took the train to the airport to leave.

that's basically what we did, but here's the funny story. when we arrived, we couldn't find the hotel! by the time we took the train and then transfered to the subway and hit the streets, it was after 9, probably 9:30. we had to walk a bit so i could orient myself. i did so by finding the forbidden city, we were supposed to stay close to it. we had to double back and then make a left turn to take us in the direction of our alleged hotel. we never got there. you see, we've been trying to be spontaneous with some of our trips, but one thing we will always plan in the future, is how to get to the hotel! we rolled into another hotel and checked in, no problem. it turns out the hotel we originally booked was a bit further down the road we were walking. we just didn't quite know it then. it's one of those roads that changes it's name at some point. the hotel we stayed at was very nice and a lot closer to the forbidden city (the center of town). my sense of direction was not going to fail me, but it was late, we were tired and a bit cold...

here are some photos from our walks around. chances are, the buildings with yellow roofs are in the forbidden city. the large, circular building is the temple of heaven. there might be one that looks like a flea market, it has an enoumous pavillion. this place was over-whelming, there was just so much to look at. ok, that's it, let's get on with it!

it's been a while...

2009-03-03T04:40:00.000-08:00

it's been almost a month. here are a few photos to look at. there are some people we work with and some places nearby that we frequent. we're going to beijing this weekend for the first time. we've traveled through the airport there, but never have we stayed to see the city. you can expect an entry soon with some photos and maybe a story or two about it!

sichuan food

2009-02-08T04:02:00.000-08:00

today's phase is ma(2 tone) la(4 tone). ma la means numb and spicy. today we went to a sichuan restaurant, 2 days after being there with some friends, but who's keeping track? among other spicy things, we ordered a soup that had a very strange effect on us. our lips went numb! it started out as a funny, tingling sensation, and then on to outright numbness. at first, we exchanged glances as we ate, and commented on the "interesting" flavor. kristina spoke up first and blatantly said that her mouth was numbing. she ate more, naturally because i'm not really a soup person, so she got the full effect. we were back to normal after a while, and the other spicy dishes were wonderful! we just thought we'd share this experience with you all. if you're interested, search "sichuan pepper" and you might find out more. there's actually a chemical (about 3%) in these things that have the numbing property. sichuan food is typically salty, greasy, and of course, spicy, but we love it. we're just not going to eat it often. it can certainly leave one feeling a bit heavy. mmmm... hao chi

philippines, xin nian kuai le

2009-02-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

happy new year! we decided to go to the philippines for the chinese new year. we travelled with our friend susan and stayed on boracay island, just north of panay island. after our prop ride from manilla to cataclan on panay, we took a tricycle (motorcyclye with 4 seat side car) to catch a boat to boracay. you will have noticed both the tricycles and the boats in the photos. we took a few rides around in both, altogether seeing many different views of this island. they were very humbling experiences. we're going to let the photos speak for themselves...

another blog

2008-12-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

here's a collection of photos from the past month and a half. some of you may have seen some of them before... oh well. there are some photos from halloween. there's me in costume, as well as ms. sunshine. during the festivities i accompanied the 1st grade class. there's also one of the kindergarten class, who i also work with... what a great group of kids?! it's the one with the boy in the monkey costume. in the kindergarten class i'm called the master of disaster, so that's what i dressed up as. the costume was thrown together that morning. there's a photo from the night we learned how to make a couple korean dishes from susan. there are also a few of the scenery surrounding the school. there's one of my bowling score when i turkey'd! holy $#@t! i couldn't believe it. of course the rest of the game was crap, so the total score was 119. i scored a 4 on the 9th frame! i bowled 3 consecutive strikes on the tenth frame, where it only gets me 30 points. my bowling name is walter, john goodman's character in the movie called the big lebowski. finally, there's one from the night at the club last saturday. kristina left a few hours before i did, what a crazy, late night that was...

Snow

2008-11-18T01:07:00.000-08:00

This is a really, really short blog. We had a bit of snow here today. No pictures though, our camera is not working!! -Kristina

cha (tea)

2008-11-17T05:23:00.000-08:00

ok, now for a really short blog... i had tea shipped to me in china. there, i said it. even though it's a south american tea, yerba mate, isn't china the center of the tea universe (all you chai fans might argue with me on that)? when the fifth grade teacher saw that i had it she couldn't help but laugh! she's not wrong for reacting that way, it now seems like a silly thing for me to do. there's got to be some type of chinese tea that is similar enough to the mate she was quick to tell me. i couldn't help but laugh at myself. it was a funny moment, one of many i experience thoughout any given day. brian

hao chi

2008-11-08T23:49:00.000-08:00

good eats! last night our friends susan and judy came over and cooked food with us. really, it was susan, the owner of the lovely green apron some of us took turns wearing, who took the lead showing us how two korean dishes are prepared. the first is a kim chi pancake. this consists of flour, water, eggs, and of course, kim chi. the batter is runny, so when it's poured into the pan, it speads out quickly making a thin pancake. the other dish is called kim bap (spelling?) which is like sushi, but with pickled vegetables, and any meat included is always cooked. if you like it raw, go to a japanese restaurant, not a korean one. we made them with crab, sausage, a variety of vegetables, and a crazy amount of rice. some were made without the crab for my non-seafood eating, iodine allergic because it almost killed me, sorry ass! it's wrapped up in a seaweed paper which i'm not crazy about, but these rolls did taste good. kristina loves it! what i mostly did, besides eat the food, was stay out of the way, drink beer, and remain composed during the jeering and jokes thrown at me by the ladies. it was a lot of fun, and we all learned some things about korean food. next time, kristina will teach them how to make deviled eggs, which were a hit at a party a few weeks ago. maybe we'll do a second dish with it, any suggestions?

November 04, International Style

2008-11-05T05:03:00.000-08:00

It's a really strange feeling to know that something so good and extremely important happened in our home country and we watched it on tv. If you can imagine a school with maybe 200 students, really quiet hallways and about 7 or 8 teachers screaming and jumping up and down. That's how relieved we were to hear the results. The quote of the day, "now we don't have to be embarassed to be Americans" and just from our short stint overseas, this is a great quote. I think every American should travel outside of the country; to places they never imagined they would find themselves. You realize how much you take for granted,and how much you really don't know about the world. we can only hope that obama will find the right balance of sound domestic and foreign policies to undo the mess his successor's administration has created. it may seem idealistic, and a bit naive, but let's hope a little bit for a better future. he's intelligent, he loves his country, he has an open mind enough to think globally, why shouldn't he be president? we're incredibly happy for him. may the best person win, and finally, this time, that person did win! maybe one day soon it will be a woman, maybe one day no one will care who they are, as long as they are the best person for the job. we can only hope... yes we can!

dalian...

2008-10-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

we have finally visited dalian city to explore a bit. progress has been a little slow, but we're getting there. we're quite familiar with the plaza by the qing gui station, up the road to zhongshan square, and on up renmin lu to gongwan square. although it's straight shot through the middle of the city, there's plenty more to be discovered, lots more. of course kristina has found a starbuck's along the way, and i found a pizza place that is ok. we've found a few places to shop for antiques and other traditional, crafty things. also, near the station there is victory plaza, under which there is a three level shopping center. in all these places to shop, haggling is widely accepted and sometimes expected. i'm getting used to it, knowing my numbers and a few relevant phrases like, it's too expensive and i don't want it helps a little. obviously, i know how much they want to charge me and we can work it out. still, i always know when i pay too much because they accept my counter offer very quickly. oh well... we're going back this saturday, not sure why though. maybe because the weather is still ok and we can. ok, there are a few photos here and hopefully a video or two. the video on the bus is on the way to kai fa qu, we're sorry that it's sideways, deal with it! the guy sitting next to me and staring at the camera is judy's boyfriend. the other video is near victory plaza in dalian. all the photos are in dalian. the one with the replica of the junk is at gongwan square. the rest are at or near enough to zhongshan square. more later...

SHARK!!!!

2008-10-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

ok, no sharks, but there were a lot of fish in the tank that attacked kristina, at least 50 or 6o. nevermind the glass! some of you know, we're sorry if you don't, but we had a freak accident. we were in the cafe downstairs, sitting with our friend jose, underneath a huge fish tank, and the thing just spontaneously exploded. we all got soaked, but kristina and i were injured. i got a small but deep cut on my toe requiring 2 stitches. kristina got a cut on her arm that needed 15 stitches! it was amazing how she remained composed as jose and i escorted her over to the clinic. the first 2 photos are from that night, and the next 2 are 5 days later. we're fine, there was never a doubt of that. besides us being unlucky enough to be there at the wrong time, we were incredibly lucky to only have these superficial injuries. the glass is thick and heavy and it could have been a lot worse. that's about it. we'll have another post coming soon as we've finally taken time to explore dalian city. i have some photos, a video, and a few words on the subject. until then...

brussels!

2008-10-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

ok, we moved to china... we're going to see all this cool stuff... the great wall, guilin... maybe korea, japan, malaysia, singapore, cambodia, thailand, phillipines, indonesia and australia. but nooooo, we're going to europe on the first break we get. we went to brussels! it was cold and rainy and we loved every minute of it. we were there for six days and took day trips out of town on three of them. we went to amsterdam and paris. and on a third day, we took a bus trip to gent and bruges. we're going to limit our posted photos to brussels, gent and bruges. it was a pleasant, uneventful week, what a vacation?!

video

2008-09-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

ok, peeps! it's been a while. here's what's been happening. we've been eating, walking, working, learning how to speak chinese and we just watched the live launch of their rocket that took three men into orbit. we ride the bus around and we went to see a musical performance. there are a few videos and photos for you. we'll have another post soon, although that won't be about china. we're going to brussels, belgium for the week next week and we'll have to let you all know how it goes. zai jian

brian's job

2008-08-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

oh, i have it rough. i start the day by socializing with whoever stops in to the teacher workroom to check their mailbox or make last minute copies. after that i'm in kindergarten (the most difficult part of my day, no joke), then it's back to the workroom to make copies and cut things out, etc. for about an hour. i have lunch, do double recess duty, work with a student one on one with reading fluency, make more copies and stuff, and spend the last 45 minutes of school time in 1st grade. after dismissal i have to be there for 45 minutes with the rest of the teachers. during that time, i make copies, run who knows what to whoever, and socialize with whoever else is also wandering the halls. also, about lunch, it's chinese food, as part of my pay, everyday, what a day!!

there are two other assistants that work here. first of all, when a chinese person has a name that is obviously not chinese, i think one of two things have happened. they have either chosen a name to be called, or their name directly translates to an english word. one assistant's name is sunshine, and yes, it fits. i don't know if she chose that or not. the other's name is joyce. both are obviously not chinese words, so who knows??? they're very nice and teach me a few mandarin words throughout the day. today i learned how to say good morning. last week, it was soybean oil. i'll include them to the list as soon as i know how to spell them. i had to repeat it all day, even in the afternoon. so there i am, walking around, hanging out, saying good morning to everyone, including myself, all day. whatever it takes, right? joyce works full time in the workroom. sunshine helps out in 1st grade in the morning while i'm in kindergarten. joyce has been here for more than a year, and sunshine just started, like us. already the two of them are close friends, walking the halls hand in hand like many chinese women do. joyce's last day is tomorrow, she's going back to school to get her master degree in world literature. she plans to teach at the college level outside the country so she can help introduce chinese culture to others... wow!

in the evenings, we either eat in the cafe, go out to town (and eat dinner out), hang out with our new teacher buddies, or more rarely stay in and take it easy. there are a few photos included with this posting. i'm not sure how they will be ordered, but you will figure out what is what. there will be a couple shots of the view i have from the recess yard. there will be one of joyce. there will then be two photos of us out with two of our friends, all taken with my new phone. on the left is my lovely wife, kristina!, representing the u.s. and the phillipines. in the middle is susan, representing korea. she has spent the last 12 years i think, living in canada, so yes, her english is better than mine! she teaches in the english as a second language room, which is for students requiring extra assistance with, well, english of course! finally, on the right is judy, one of four mandarin teachers at the school. she is our mandarin tutor, and an excellent teacher it seems. she has lived in the u.s. and earned her master degree at a college somewhere in new york. these three teachers are three of the four youngest teachers at the school. you should see the three of them hanging out, i guess asian women like to stick together. the forth is the kindergarten teacher, jon. i'll have a photo of him up here soon. he's a story all by himself, quite an adventurous fellow.

so, that's my day. like i said, pretty rough, eh?

we're going to dalian on saturday night to see a soccer game! we haven't made it that far in to town so much. it should be a fun night. we're starting to get comfortable out here. we'll start visiting dalian city more in the near future. by october or november, we'll make it to beijing for a weekend. we're going to brussels, belgium for a week at the end of september. yes, i know, it's not asia. it's pretty far from asia, oh well... i think that's enough for now. we'll let you know more about dalian city, proper, and the soccer game later. as always, it's been a pleasure, brian

show me the money!!

2008-08-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

our third poker night paid off. someone finally suggested we put money on the table, and then we won. we shouldn't have. the people we work with are too nice. i was out already, and kristina was still in with four others. she was tired and left to go to bed, so everyone thought i should have the chips instead of dividing it up between themselves... bad choice! three hands later, i won the whole thing! maybe it was two, what do i know? i know i had a straight and then a two pair. we were playing texas hold'em so i think that's doing well. we made 80 renmimbi. that's equal to about $11.76. i think there were six people who played, so that's under $2.oo per person. no one really cares, it was fun hanging out. we're thinking of some way to spend it on something everyone can benefit from. that would be 16 large sized tsingtao beers at the store, looks like a party brewing... since there are quite a few of us here, the chances of the same group being together again are slim. the best thing we can do is play again next week and lose. for now, we owned it! zai jian, losers!!

on our own

2008-08-17T03:48:00.000-07:00

ni hao, today we took a taxi in to town on our own, mei wan ti! we asked to go to the ansheng mall, a place that's well known and familiar to us already. see the photo of the large building with the big screen on it. on friday night we went there with jose, the computer tech guy, leah, the music teacher, and susan, one of the esl teachers. that night people were waltzing... yes, waltzing to some austrian waltz music or something in the common area below the screen. today, we bought new sheets for the bed and ate at a restaurant that had no english written on the menu. our waitress was extremely patient and we only know a few food words. we could point at the pictures and say (in mandarin) this, and then the quantity. we know our numbers 1 through 10. of course we know please, thank you and goodbye. she seemed impressed, or amused, or both!. with a sincere will to communicate, an open mind, a few words in our vocabulary, gesturing, and pointing at the menu we were able to get by. the funny thing is after all that, we still didn't know exactly what we ordered. the food was fabulous. i ordered a corn and bean soup for the two of us, and chicken (or pork) filled buns for me as appetizers. kristina ordered a noodle dish that had fresh carrots, cucumbers, and cilantro on top. there was a separate dish of shredded beef and green peppers cooked in a zesty sauce to add to it at the table. my entree was tofu cooked in a spicy sauce, i thought i was ordering chicken! mei wan ti! when we left the restaurant, we walked around to explore a bit more. our adventure did not end there, as we had not yet made it home. in my wallet, i carry a card that has the name and address of the school in the chinese characters. when i hailed a cab, i said wo qu (remember the "q" is pronounced as a "ch") and pointed the the name of the school on the card. the driver did not know it, we got in the car anyway... he got right on the radio and asked someone else i assume. it seemed he still didn't know. luckily, i had been paying attention as we've been taken in to town on the bus, so i gave him directions. "zuo zhuan" i said, and he took off down the street and turned left at the first stop light. at the second light i said "you zhuan", and he turned right. that put us on the main road back toward jinshitan. at the right time, i said zuo zhuan, a minute later, you zhuan, and we were on the road that led us to our apartment building. we made it, mei wan ti...

school is in session!

2008-08-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

School started on Thursday. It was very low-key, since we only have 180 students total at school. I took pictures of my classroom. I thought I would have 9 students, but I have 6! More soon...

i think i'll go for a walk, i feel happy!

2008-08-10T05:56:00.000-07:00

hello all, today we went on our first hike in the hills in the area. it was a little more of a workout than we anticipated. we made it back in one piece. the picture with the white figures behind us was taken after our decent. we walked up and down so many hills, it did not seem to have an end! it's very beautiful out here. we know we're lucky to be at a good school, out in the country, with so many wonderful people. next time we are going by ourselves so we can take our time and enjoy the scenery a bit more. i still managed to snap a few photos. we still have not acquired phones, i needed to spend that money on an mri on my liver. some of you already know that story, so i'll try to keep it short. basically, we have to submit to a medical exam before we are allowed to reside here. they found a growth on my liver that's turned out to be nothing to worry about at all. it required axtra testing, and extra money! we will be reimbursed, but it takes a little while. long story short, we spent our phone money on something else... bummer. we have a skype account, and our webcam is ready to go. if you are interested in communicating that way, please send us your information and we'll get it going. kristina's classroom is almost set up. the first day of class is on thursday. i think she will post the next one about that. it's been a pleasure, brian

First Blog!

2008-08-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, we have been so busy with getting settled that we forgot about the blog!! We are here in Dalian City, and it has been a great experience. It's 3:33pm. and Brian is napping, so I thought I would write.
We had a really long flight out here to Dalian. We flew from Baltimore to Chicago and then on to Beijing. That was really exciting, we were able to see the new Terminal 3, built just for the Olympics! We arrived with NBC journalists who are covering the games. From Beijing, we flew on China Southern to Dalian International Airport. It was a fairly small airport, but no troubles!
We live in a really nice apartment, although it is temporary. We have two bedrooms, two bath, kitchen and living room, small hall closet. There are WALK IN CLOSETS!!!! I'm a little excited about that, but anyway. The people we have met have been so nice and we don't really have to do much for ourselves. We have a cafe downstairs where we could eat every night, if we wanted. We could hire a maid but we won't. My school is really nice and we have tons of supplies and so far I only have 9 students! Brian will definitely have things to do around the campus. They have said he will be put to work, I just don't know if he will get paid! Well, that's all for now.