Wander Life

It's like Malibu!

So, you know how people say, "When it rains, it pours"?  Well, what about when you have a bunch of good stuff happening?  I guess right now, I might say, "When the sun's shining, you best be grabbing the SPF 50." 

And here are just a few reasons I feel like I'm in Malibu right now - it was a great week:

Mid-terms went well - only had a couple cheaters.  (Of course, I had to take a few cell phones and move people to different parts of the classroom...plus, we made four different versions of the exams, so admittedly, it would have been pretty hard to cheat very well...but still, I think we're making progress!)

Had some good interactions with students and friends - yay for people!

Went to the movie theatre again tonight...and actually saw a movie we had heard of.  With actual known-actors and actresses.  In English.  And not a horror movie.  So...that was big improvement.  (It was "Ghost Rider" with Nicholas Cage - kinda cheesy but much better than last week's display of a Christmas gone very, very bad.)

And lastly...and the biggest and best news of all...wait for it...wait for it...drum roll...and...MY PARENTS ARE COMING!  They got their visas on Tuesday, so it's pretty much as official as it gets.  Now they just have to get on the plane....

So, yeah, they're flying on Sunday.  I'm taking a plane to Beijing to meet them, and then we'll spend a few days there, doing the whole visit-the-Great-Wall, see-the-Forbidden-City, go-to-a-teahouse-concert, touristy thing.  It's gonna be pretty sweet.  I'm taking care of all the arrangements over here, so, though I've been to Beijing quite a few times, this time's gonna take the cake.  And after Beijing, we'll fly back here to Ningxia, and I just get to hang out with them for over a week, showing them where I live and work.  And eat.  And play.  : ) 

Since my first time to China (in 2001), my parents have been talking about coming over here to visit me but have just never made it.  And now they're coming.  Here.  In two days.  I gotta admit - that's even more exciting than a non-horror movie playing in English...and that's saying something!

So, anyway, I'll try to post again before too long - show ya how my parents are doing.  : )   

A terrific book, but a terrible movie!

In our classes last week, we taught a unit about movies.  It was to help students be able to talk about films, describe them, say what genres they like, etc., and it was called "A terrific book, but a terrible movie!"

The reason that comes to mind is because, it being Saturday night, we (N, K and I) decided to once again try our luck at the local movie theatre.  Now, the problem we usually encounter in this venture is two-fold: everything in the main auditorium is playing in Chinese, and the little back-alley theatre that plays English movies seems to have some odd devotion to horror movies.  ("What?  You don't think Chucky VI was the crowning achievement of American cinema?  What's the matter with you?!") 

Being well aware that this is the kind of fare we'd be subject to if we did, in fact, ever choose to pay the admission, we actually have only watched a movie there once (a nice little flick about killer alien cave creatures).  And that was a year ago - last spring.  Thus, regardless of the movie, it was time to give it another shot. 

Now, I'm not sure what I was expecting with a movie called Black Christmas, but here's the upshot: not a single cave creature in sight.  The downside, of course, was that we had an hour and twenty minutes of watching sorority girls getting systematically picked off on Christmas Eve.  There were candy canes and Christmas trees everywhere - it was horrible.

Nevertheless, it was fun to get out on a Saturday night and do what the people do...which, apparantly, is watch terrible movies.  Maybe the book's really good, though.  : )

Anyway, that's what's new around here.  Next week is mid-terms, so that should be fun.  Cheating is quite the epidemic around here, so we'll see how it goes.

Gone Fishin'

Yesterday provided me with another first: fishing in China.

We went with our foreign affairs department from our school, and, as you can see by our haul, we proved to be quite the sportsmen.  : )  Ok, not really.  We just kind of sat there with really long poles...with no reels...at a cement pond...and when you hooked something, a guy who worked there came running over to net it for you.  But other than that, man, we earned those fish.  : ) 

The nice thing, though, was that it made for a pretty tasty dinner last night.  Plus, we got sent home with one (which is currently in my fridge), so looks like I'll be doing some gutting today. 

All in all, I think that's enough participation to be able to check it off  my list.  Fishing in China?  Done that.

Oh, and today's my brother's birthday!  He's really cool, and I like him and all, so...happy birthday, Ty - peace out to the twenties!  : )

 

Visitors + Candy = Fun!

You think three foreigners cause a stir?  Try six!

That's exactly what we did this past week as we had three of N&K's friends visiting from Colorado.  A good time was had by all as we put on a school-wide Easter egg hunt, ate Easter candy (from America!) and scoped out our beloved city. 

Seeing China through other people's eyes is always cool.  Plus, it's just fun having people get to share in our life here.  So...thanks Trish, Claire and Sarah!  You guys are pretty cool.  : )    

Foreigners Do The Strangest Things

Like putting eggs under bushes...just to have their kids go around and pick them up again. : )

Anyway, Easter is going well over here.  Hope you all find some color and joy this Easter, too.

Oh, and happy birthday to my colleague and friend, Nick.  Every day from now on is closer to 50 than 0.  And car rentals are cheaper.  Hoorah!

I'm Lovin' It?

Well, April already, huh?  Seems like only yesterday Passover was beginning.... 

Ok, that actually was yesterday, but you get the idea - time's flying and all that.  Easter seems to have been particularly stealthy - one minute I'm polishing off the candy canes that someone sent me, the next I'm fixing to make deviled eggs for an Easter brunch we foreigners are having this weekend.  I think, in the future, I'll have to take a page from my sister's book.  She's lenting (if that's even a word), and I suppose that would help remind one of the season.  I mean, I know that if I were going without cereal (or, worse yet, sandwiches), I'd be watching that calendar like a hawk.  Guess that's the idea.  Well, maybe next year.  But, anyway, for this year, props to you, sis.  Chocolate pancakes will probably never taste so good as on Easter morning.   

And to the rest of ya, lenting or not, hope this week is going well.  I'm fighting a bit of a cold, but I can't complain.  I did, afterall, get to take a trip this past weekend.  And not just any trip.  Oh no - we're talking a get-some-cheeseburgers, miss-your-(peasant)train kinda trip. 

Now, this might be one of those "guess you had to be there" kind of things, but...I already put the picture up (see the Western food?), so I guess I'd better, at least, try to recap it a bit.  So, here goes:

Last weekend, my organization had a women's retreat sorta thing up in Inner Mongolia.  Sounded pretty fun, and we (K and I) figured, hey, it's only an overnight-sleeper-train-ride away.  Piece o' cake.

So, we joined up with another friend (L) and, on Thursday evening, hopped on said train.  ...Now, I feel like a bit of disclaimer is needed here.  First off, I like sleeper trains.  (I think they're a great way to travel, and I wish we used them more in the States.)  Secondly, I really like China.  (Obviously.)  And lastly, I don't really mind dirt.  (Not a big deal to me.)  So, when I say that this train ride was not the most pleasant night's sleep I've ever had (bright lights and loud talking from 3:30-5:00am?  really?)and that it was, in fact, the dirtiest train I've ever been on, I think that's kinda saying something. 

We later found out that we had been on the "peasant" train and that it had originated in Chengdu, in Sichuan Province.  Now, if you don't know anything about the layout of China, I can tell you this much: Chengdu to Hohhot (the city in Inner Mongolia where we were going) is a long, long way.  And along this long, long way, people (mostly peasants, apparently) get on and off...all the while, sleeping, eating, and just generally milling about on the beds.  Take all this into account, and then add it to the fact that the sheets were changed a grand total of zero times.  Mmmm...cozy.

Anyway, the important thing was that we made it up there, safe and sound.  And the weekend went pretty much without a hitch - went to a mini-IKEA, bought some Western food stuffs at this random back-alley kind of place, ate Italian food, ate a Mongolian yurt-style meal (similar to the one N, K and I had during the October holiday - minus the blaring karaoke singer) and even partook in a bridal shower (complete with the toilet-paper wedding dress contest...which, by the way, K and I pretty much rock at).  So...all in all, good times.

And, we did make it back home again.  Sunday, about midnight, we came clicking back in to the Yinchuan station....  Sure, it was a few hours later than we had planned, and, yes, we had missed our original train earlier that day because we stopped at McDonald's to get cheeseburgers on the way to the train station only to find out that you can't get cheeseburgers until 10:00am and, no, 9:55 is not the same as 10:00, and if you wait the five minutes (which we did), you'll get the cheeseburgers (which we also did) but you'll miss your train by two minutes (which...yup, we did again)....  But, yeah, other than that, made it home, ready for Monday morning classes, no problem.

So...that was the weekend.  Now we're having some visitors from the States coming in tomorrow (N & K's friends), so I guess it's on to the next.  And if it's a while before I post again, that'll be my excuse why.  Either that or I'm busy eating leftover cheeseburgers.  I guess Micky-D's is right: even if they make you miss your train, you can't help but be lovin' it.  : )