Hello everyone,
Again it seems that I have gotten a bit busy and behind in my blogging. I am going to post links to a bunch of pictures from the last few weeks to help update you all on what I have been up to. First is some random ones including the pictures from field day.
http://picasaweb.google.com/dignst01/RandomChina
http://picasaweb.google.com/dignst01/FieldDay
Field day was basically a giant track meet and our team really cleaned up. I was really proud. One of the teacher put together a really great video that I am trying to get a hold of so I can put it up hear so you can all watch.
The day after field day was National day (happy 61st birthday China) and one of my co-workers, Stu, hired a van and a bunch of us went out to the great wall here are the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dignst01/GreatWall
It was a really great time. I plan on going to a couple of other places on the wall but I really liked the part I went to and feel it is a great one to start at because it is not the part that has been extensively repaired and really fits my image of what the Great Wall should be like. I am going to try to get to the section that is here in Beijing (maybe next weekend) which is repaired quite a bit so that it is “how it used to be.”
Then there was a regular week of classes nothing too exciting. I gave a test. After that it was time for our delayed golden week (golden week is the week that follows national day). The first day of break, I went down to Wodaoko for a surprise birthday party for Laura planned by her husband Stu. We went to a placed called Grandma’s Kitchen and had an American style brunch. It was a really good taste of home. The best part was watching Philip, the Chinese staff that helped me get my apartment, eating with a fork for the first. He claimed that it was much harder then eating with chopsticks. That night I was able to talk to some Luther people on their way to home coming. It was really strange to think about homecoming and not being there.
Sunday I went back to the electronics mart with someone who needed to get a USB thumb drive. I really enjoy it over there and like wonder in it and see what they have to offer. Anyways, the friend I brought with me (he had never been) found a USB drive for 100 RMB (about $14) and I thought it was a great deal so I decided to get one as I had been thinking that I could use one. They ran my card but instead of hitting the 0 button on the machine, they accidently hit the 00 button charging me $1500 or at least they would have if the credit card company had put the out of country notice on my card like I had asked them to. Instead they had put it on only on my debt card and so the purchase flagged the fraud prevention and stopped the purchase. I then got angry with the woman selling me the USB drive and got her to give it to me for half the price so 2 failures (credit card company and stall worker) ended up with a really great deal.
I then stayed up late watching coverage of the Chicago Marathon and looking for texts of when my sister passed major milestones. I was so proud when she finished that I had trouble getting to sleep but as I needed to get up at 3 AM the next day I tried my best.
Monday, I got to the school at 3:30 AM to commence my role as school trip chaperone to Inner Mongolia. I should have know it was going to be interesting when the other chaperones started arguing with the volunteers organizing the trip but I stayed optimistic. That optimism faded slowly throughout the trip. One chaperone immediately accused them of violating the contract that I know he never read so how did he know that? Overall, I really enjoyed the trip. It was a little disorganized but the kids were mostly good and once I tuned out the wining teachers I enjoyed it.
The trip was switched to be by bus instead of train last minute and as a result, all the Chinese kids dropped out of the trip. We all thought they were over reacting until we got on the road. We had a van and a bus and I was riding in the van. There were many portions of the trip that I literally had my hands over my eyes. We were zig-zaging between semis and using the shoulder as a lane. All the the roads are tollways that can get kind of pricey so there were portions that we left the highway to use side roads. At one point we ended up on a dirt road dodging semis as we looked down the side of a mountain. I really was thankful to get home alive.
We spent the first night in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia at a traditional yurt village. They served us bijio (moon shine) as we got out of the vehicles as part of a traditional welcoming ceremony and we were told that if we refused it would be really offensive to our hosts so all of our kids had some alcohol. Not sure how that will go over with mom and dad… Then they gave us a traditional meal of roast goat (I didn’t eat any) and we had a bonfire while they played us some music. I slept in an unheated yurt which got very cold when it dipped below freezing that night. In the morning we rode horses (they were small and more like ponies) in the grasslands.
We then drove across Inner Mongolia to the edge of the dessert with a stop at a factory that made all things Mongolian for a tour and shopping spree. At the dessert we got in some vehicles that reminded me of sand cruisers from Star Wars and went speeding across the dunes to where we could ride some camels and go Dune sledding.
After the dessert we dinned and slept in a four star hotel but I am unsure how it got its rating seeing as I did not even have hot water. The next day we explored Ordos, a city with only 3% occupancy. China seems to have taken a field of dreams approach to the city but he has not yet come. We saw Asia’s largest musical fountain (it wasn’t on) and Genghis Khan’s Mausoleum before heading back to Beijing.
http://picasaweb.google.com/dignst01/InnerMongolia
Well, that is all I have for now. I hope all of you are doing well back home. Congratulations to my amazing sister for completing a Marathon. I am so proud I keep telling anyone who will listen.
