Hello, 2018.

2017 was a pretty good year for me, personally. I opened up a new chapter of my life by leaving Bangkok, got to do some travel back to and around the US, not to mention China. Ella and I started a new life together here in Guangzhou. We've managed to make things here work out pretty well. And although there are things we can all do better on, I hope 2018 will give me the optimism and drive to improve.

My initial thought is that 2017 worldwide is... not so great. We had a lot of influential people die, at what seems like a much great rate than usual. And it turns out a lot of the ones that did not pass away are pretty freaky. The world had a pretty rough year politically. Not just the US, but also with France, the Rohingya in Myanmar, the ongoing refugee issue in Europe, and the wars in the Middle East, to name a few.

Ella and I played a silly game on the way out to party on New Years where I presented bad hypothetical situations and we tried to put a positive spin on them. Like, stepped in a puddle of sewer water? Chance to buy new shoes. I think 2018 could be a nice chance to try to be more optimistic. Plenty of new influential people have come to replace those who have gone. There's been a large amount of awareness on sexual harassment. And a lot of people have come together at the very least, in opposition to movements they dislike. So I'm going to try and put a positive spin on any difficulties I face personally.

But enough with silly feelings. What's been going on? It is New Years after all, and we went out to celebrate with some nice folks downtown. After an Italian dinner, we hit up some bars, including one that brews their own beer. I know that sounds ridiculous that such a thing is notable, but for Asia that's kind of a unique thing. They had a massive selection, with the cinnamon IPA and coconut lager being the standouts. It reminded me a lot of brewpubs back in the US, so I'd really like to go back. When we went to book a Didi (Chinese Uber), there were 700 people ahead of us with a 2.5 hour wait. So, that was fun. We eventually found our way back at about 4am, from a very nice taxi that used the meter. This is in such a contrast to my previous experiences in China. I remember in Shanghai some 6 years ago, New Years was pretty tame. Yes we went to a bar, but it seemed like an expat only thing. In fact, the streets were pretty dead. Now here in Guangzhou, I'm not sure if its Guangdong culture or the community here, but New Years was hopping. Hopefully it's a change all of China is embracing, whatever needs to be done to get more people out and socializing.

But at the time of writing, there are only 4 more days between me and a roughly 2 month holiday. Ella's parents are coming, and we plan on travelling around Guangdong with them, including Hong Kong. We're going to Vietnam for a bit, so that will be something to look forward to. Recently though, we took a trip to Macau. I've written about Macau before, and I left it last time with a really nice impression. It is an autonomous territory like Hong Kong, but it really gets overshadowed by its much larger cousin. Formerly a Portuguese colony until only 9 years ago, it's mostly its known for its casinos. But it's also a nice place with its own charm, and a neat blend of Asia and Europe. We started our trip after work to Zhuhai, the border town. We didn't do much there except arrive, eat, and go to bed. Early the next morning we went to Gongbei to pass through immigration, and off we were. I had never been right over the border last time I went, and there's no reason to. It honestly just looks like any other city in China, except with Portuguese signs everywhere. Also little buns shaped like pigs, they were cute. Anyway, after dropping off our bags, we went to Monte Fort and the Macau Museum, both of which I missed last time. The Macau Museum was nice, not huge but they had some pretty cool stuff to see. We ate lunch at a little Portuguese restaurant nearby, supposedly one of the few that still has authentic Portuguese food in the city. Ella had some sort of cheesy tomato chicken which was pretty amazing.

After we went to the Ruins of St. Paul's, which if you've seen any picture of Macau you've seen this place. It was much more crowded, being a Sunday and Christmas Eve, than the random Monday I originally came on. They were setting up for some Christmas show, which actually coincided with a light show they do every evening around the holidays. After, it was mostly just a lot of walking around Senado Square. A really beautiful part of town, with narrow cobblestone streets, I feel like I could spend hours just trying to find every tucked away coffee shop or restaurant. It's really my favorite part of the city, and we went around drinking coffee and visiting churches. Some are pretty impressive considering their age, but Ella said that the cathedral in Covington spoiled her. That may be, but do they sell coconut ice cream and pepper pork buns outside the cathedral? Didn't think so.

We stopped at a cat cafe, because, Ella, before moving on to the Mandarin House. I really like the Mandarin House, and it reminds me of the Lin An Tai Homestead in Taipei. Just an old, cool looking "Chinese, Kung Fu Panda" sort of place you can just walk around in and do whatever. After a climb up A-Ma Temple, we went back to the center of town to see the Grand Lisboa hotel, also a building you've probably seen if you've ever seen a picture of Macau. It's of course a casino, and entirely too fancy. There was a boat made of gold. And an entire miniature Chinese village carved out of ivory. But the most impressive thing - in the bathrooms, they have like little stepping pegs in front of the urinals so there's no chance of your shoes getting wet. Truly, it is a place of luxury.

Speaking of Taipei, we were there to meet Nicole, one of my friends and coworkers from when I worked in Taiwan. She works at one of the many, many fancy hotels around Macau, and just started 5 months or so ago. We went to get some food and catch up with her, and went to some of the places we visit earlier in the day. At night, they had them all lit up with different colored lights, which looked pretty cool.

The next day we went south, into Taipa and Cotai. Taipa has a bunch of old houses, and is mostly a "residential" part of Macau. We went to see the Taipa Museum, which is mostly just a small old home. But it's right next to Taipa village, which we went to for being one of the few historically preserved places in Macau, and home of Lord Stowe's Bakery. While not probably a notable thing in America, they were the first to do Macau Egg tarts, which are now ubiquitous everywhere in East Asia. And, as someone who does not really care for egg tarts, they were pretty darn good. Ella seemed to really like them.

After we walked to Cotai, which is sort of the Las Vegas strip of Macau. Full of glitzy casinos, and formerly the largest building in the world (3rd now, I think), the Venetian. It's like 4 football fields and 50 stories high, with a friggin canal with gondolas running through it. Truly, it was the most opulent place I've been, and was at times way over the top in its... grandiousness. We followed it up with a trip to the Parisian, while smaller, was even more nice. I mean, they have a curved escalator. Never seen that before. Also people dressed in 17th century clothing that walk around tipping their hats to you.

And that seemed like a fitting end to Macau. We also did stop at the Fisherman's Wharf, but it was pretty underwhelming. We went back to Zhuhai, but not before stopping at McDonald's to get their Christmas Tree french fries. On the picture they're arranged like a tree with a dab of guacamole on top. In reality, its just a medium with a side of guac. I mean, you know how Asia is a Mexican food desert? Even McDonald's guac was heavily appreciated, and they really need to roll it out worldwide. After another stay in Zhuhai, we stopped off in Zhongshan to have lunch for a friend from Bangkok. And after that, it was back home for another day. Overall, I liked Macau even more this time. The weather was nicer, I got to see it with my best friend, and I peed in the nicest restroom in the world. I envy no one.

So the semester is winding down. I just finished a week of review, which means the next two weeks are midterms. The plus side is that I don't have to plan lessons. The downside is that I have to give about 450 kids 3-minute oral tests. This isn't like giving your opinion on socioeconomic issues - it's more like "Where is the cat?" But after that, it looks like I get one week to myself while Ella still teaches. Then it's nearly 2 months off. What are we going to do? Going to Vietnam, probably. But who knows?


Actually someone asked me a lot of questions recently about my job, as if they were thinking of taking the jump. I've said it before, but if anyone wants to make the move to teaching English abroad I definitely recommend it, and would be glad to find you a gig. Most days I don't have to roll out of bed until 9 or so, I get a 2.5 hour break in the middle of the day, and am often home before 4. Physically it's pretty easy, although mentally it can be a little tough at times. Did you know that some children are insane?

Still, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

We did some more tourism around town, first checking out some ruins of the Nanyue Palace. I saw the Nanyue King (or what was left of him) a few months ago after first coming to Guangzhou. But basically, the Nanyue Kingdom is what Guangzhou (and Vietnam) was around 200 - 100 B.C.. Crazy to think that I was walking in ruins more than 10x older than my home country, but that's China. It was pretty well preserved, although a lot of it is just pottery. I've gone on record that I hate pottery in museums. Every civilization has it, it all looks the same. Still, they have this really cool open pit you walk above on glass floors, where you can see sort of how the city used to be laid out. It sort of reminded me of the Rape of Nanjing Exhibit, except you know, much different in mood.

We actually saw a lot more that day. An old library used by Dr. Sun Yat Sen (now a children's library), the oldest mosque in Gaungzhou (closed to visitors), the Revolutionary Museum (lot of old pictures about WWII and the change to Communism), and a pretty temple downtown. We also dressed up as Santa and drank a lot. Turns out Guangzhou also has a Santa Pub Crawl, with unlimited beer, cocktails, champagne, and food. So, that was a great night, from what I remember of it. We went to 4 different bars, and the drunk bus kept the party going. Since Christmas is not really a thing here, you can imagine the stares we got, a parade of 50 some drunk foreigners all holding beer and dressed like Santa. We stood out, is what I'm saying.

Determined to not develop a beer gut, next weekend would be different. A few months ago, our boss told us about this thing called The Hash. What is The Hash, you and I ask? As I was told, it was started by some American military folks who wanted to drink, but not get fat. So, before drinking, they have a really long hike in the forest. How that works is that before hand, someone runs along the trail and marks it with flour. They will occasionally put in false trails that you have to double back and try to find the correct path. Along the way, there are beer caches that tend to disappear if you are too slow. And then at the end, you stand around and roast each other on how much they suck at hiking. Followed by copious amounts of eating and drinking. It's something I have certainly never done before, but it was a lot of fun. Although, towards the end I was starting to get quite worried. We were still in the middle of the forest and it was getting dark, so next time we need to pick up the pace. We were not the last ones to finish though, and the organizer said that next time they will make it shorter. Still, we got some great photos on the way, and definitely earned those 10 or so beers.

Ow my liver.

Things in China are going well. Our friend circle is expanding pretty rapidly, and we're getting really, really good at drinking. Too good. As in, every weekend turns into a hangover fest.

Like now.

Recently that's been in part due to a friend of ours, Daniel. He's a lawyer that we were originally introduced to in order to tutor him in English. Except, its turned into a thing where he, his assistant (also named Mike), Ella, and I just hang out. In typical Chinese style, he goes way over the top in ordering food and drink, which leads us to try in vain to consume it all.

There are worse problems to have.

I know that reading about someone on the internet drinking a lot is like, super compelling reading. But occasionally Ella and I have been able to drag our sorry butts to a few places in town just to check things out. For example, one day we went down to Tiyu Xi Lu to explore this little district full of small, 5 person bars. Some other friends also took us to a pub with the cheapest beer I've seen in China, with a loud social atmosphere that reminds me exactly like being back in America. And, to top it off, we went to another lounge bar that is hidden behind a secret shelf in a 7-11. Like, straight out of a movie, you pull on a box of cereal and a panel opens to a super posh place. That one was especially cool, and I want to keep it a bit of a mystery for when people visit... and I've started talking about drinking again.

Alright, for serious travel things, we visited a few places in the center of town. Not places you would probably go if you only had a few days holiday in Guangzhou, but interesting enough that they appear on some Chinese tour sites. The first was this pretty church Ella found that had a really nice choir practicing, a super friendly/fluffy/lazy cat, and a lot of couples hanging around taking cute pictures together. We just sort of walked around and took in the view, but it was nice and quiet compared to the bustle of the rest of the city.

We also got a chance to go to Korean town, which, man I was disappointed by that. It's just a section of Guangzhou with slightly more Korean restaurants than normal, with much higher prices to match. We actually live across the street from a pretty solid Korean place, so Korean town didn't really do it for me. Instead we found this really small, Japanese sushi place. We got some sushi and shared a bowl of ramen, and I will say, the ramen is probably in the top 5 I've ever had in my life. So, much better decision. Ignore Korean town (except to go to this Japanese restaurant), it's uninteresting.

The same can not be said about the Martyr's Park. Commemorating the people who gave their lives in the early 20th century for China, now it's just a nice park where people come to relax and spend their weekends. I think we'll definitely be back, because inside was a lotus pond that was not in bloom. I think whenever that season is, it will be really beautiful as it was just chock full of lotus. One thing had a special interest for me, and I swear I am not making this name up, is the "Sino North Korea Friendship Blood Sacrified Pavilion". In my mind, this is the place where Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom took place. Alas, it was a gift from the DPRK, basically just a little pavilion that people hung out and played music at.

Inside the Martyr's Park is the Revolutionary Museum, which is kind of fitting. It's a pretty nice museum, although it had very little English to go around. But unlike other museums in China, this one was about the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, and the start of the Republic of China (now Taiwan). As you can expect, Mainland China's government does not really take too kindly to Taiwan and the KMT. So it was weird in a way, to me, having lived on both sides of "China", and seeing one, especially the mainland, really praise the other. The museum itself was mostly just a lot of pictures with very little actual stuff, but the building itself is really pretty. Worth a visit if you're in the area, but not worth going out of your way.

Now, if you look on a map of Guangzhou, you'll notice there's a giant mountain pretty much in the middle of town. That's Baiyun (White Cloud) mountain. And while we live very close to it, we've never actually been up to the top. We remedied that twice over. First, there is a cable car that goes almost to the top. We rode it there and back, and it did have a nice view. But wow, the wait. It took us nearly an hour, and they do have a few roads that go up there. So in my mind I was thinking "Taking a bus would have been much faster." Of course you take the cable car for the view, but I prefer Maokong in Taipei. Maokong also has more to do, because at the top of Baiyun is basically just a McDonald's. I am not making that up. So if you want to get to the top of a mountain while sitting on your ass and eating a Big Mac, China's got you covered. I actually wanted to see more of Baiyun, noticing there was an extensive network of hiking trails. Well, the next week we did just that. A friend of ours, Jay, invited us for a hike. We probably covered 10km that day, and we got to visit the true summit. Guangzhou is too hazy to really get a nice view, but it was still an accomplishment that I'm glad we did.

And now you're pretty much caught up, Future Weg. One other point of note is that I got a chance to be part of a panel in a university speech competition. Truthfully I initially accepted for the quick buck, but it turned out to be kind of interesting. The students gave two speeches, one impromptu. And then I had to ask a question about each. It was a bit difficult to come up with those questions when the students had a lot of words, but actually wound up saying nothing. It gives me sympathy for pretty much every teacher that graded my essays in high school.

And last, Ella and I have been diving a bit deeper into our professional internet lives. I'm getting pretty happy with my other blog, and I think in a few more weeks I want to start promoting it somewhere. I'm just not sure how. And Ella worked really hard to create our first Youtube video about learning Chinese. So if you've ever wanted to learn how type Chinese, we've got you covered.

Happy National Day, everyone!

What is National Day? Like the 4th of July for America, it is the date modern China was founded by the Communists. What does it mean for me? Hot damn, a week off of work. Yay China!

Unfortunately it came at a somewhat bad time, as I came down with a cold right before. So the first few days of holiday were spent at home feeling bad. But, Ella and I managed to get away for a few days, first to Shangchuan Island!

Shangchuan is situated at the southern end of China, a bit west of Macau. It is actually a twin island along with Xiachuan - kind of a fun naming, since "Shang" means on top of, and "Xia" means under. Anyway, we decided to go with Shang, which may have been a good call. The boat for Xia had a really long line, but who knows? That may be an opportunity for next time.

So just to get it out of the way, Shangchuan Island is nice. But, and it feels unfair to do so, I want to compare it to Thai islands. At Shang, they kind of funnel everyone into a designated "resort" area, which is actually fairly small. Of course this means everything there is more expensive, because it's sort of far from everything else and you have to buy a ticket to enter. However, they do at least go to some effort with that cash to keep everything clean - although people certainly try their hardest to undermine that. The beach area is quite beautiful, and comparable to anything you've seen in Thailand. The one thing I seriously have to complain about is whoever decided that renting dune buggies would be a good idea. It's an otherwise quiet beach, with "Vrrooom vrooooms!" constantly charging back and forth. Also, this is not a complaint, but this place was heavily geared towards families. I think we were the only couple in the entire place, and even the bars were pretty much empty. A much different vibe than Thailand for sure, but for beach life, still quite nice.

We didn't do much at Shangchuan aside chill on the beach and in the little resort town next to it. Of note was Nine Dragon Cave, a nice little temple up on a hill you could check out. It was really beautiful up there, as it had an amazing breeze and awesome view of the whole area. Plus a naked mermaid. And this really creepy cave with strange statues in it. And a bat. So let's just throw a few pictures in here before I talk about our next destination.

Zhuhai is a mid-sized city in China that is right across the border from Macau. It has a reputation for being the "lovers city" of China, with lots of things for couples and singles from Macau escaping for the weekend. Overall though, I have to say that reputation is a little embellished. I expected it to be like the Pattaya of China, but its more like the shopping and eating center of China. It does have a nice park, a few cool shopping centers, but overall, there's really not that much to do there. We mostly just walked around the different alleys, sampling food here and there. It has a famous statue that we went out to visit, which by itself was nice enough to look at. But what I really liked is that the walkway out to the statue was submerged by the ocean. So, it looks like you're walking on water as you venture out the 50 or so meters to get up and close to this thing. That may sound dangerous, but apparently this is a common thing, as it was packed with families and little kids.

We also went to see the Zhuhai Museum (not really notable), and Oxford Street. (A small street of coffee shops - also not really notable since they were pretty much all closed). The other sight of note was Yuan Ming Xin Yuan, a giant temple in the middle of town. I know, I know. "You've seen one Chinese temple, you've seen 99% of them" -Mike. But this one was the 1%. Kind of like a Chinese theme park, it had water slides, cosplayers, and a cable car up to the mountain. Why? I have no idea. We took the cable car up, which didn't have much except a really amazing view of the city. It's actually the start of a hiking path that takes you all around the mountain, but we didn't partake in that.

And then, it was back to Guangzhou. We had a chance to take the brand-spanking-new Zhuhai to Guangzhou Express Train. It is worth taking for the novelty alone, as it is basically a metro - some seats, but mostly standing room with some bars to hang on to. And it stops at 4 or 5 stations between Zhuhai and Guangzhou. Except it is an elevated train, and gets up to nearly 300 kph. So we were back at Guangzhou in less than an hour, which was pretty awesome. I'm sure we'll have another chance to take that train when we go to Macau. But until then, it's back to work.

The times are a'changin!

So Ella and I finally got settled into our new place. Yes, new! Why did the school give us a new place? Well, I'm not exactly sure. But it's brand new, cleaner, and roomier than our old space. We actually have two apartments (one for each), but we only use one of them. You can probably tell by the photos that the other is just our kitchen and... hang out area? I guess? I don't know, seems unnecessary. But I'm not complaining about getting a free apartment.

But in more satisfying news, we finally got the visa process all sorted, and it looks to be that I will have my various permits in a few weeks. This was a major headache lifted off my shoulders, because they would refuse to accept the background check from Kentucky. This came into effect only a few months ago, so it seems they're still trying to work out the kinks in the system - namely, America's disjointed nature means that a background check from City A in Kentucky is nothing like a background check from City B in California. We had to appeal, then talk to a manager, and go back, and appeal again, and just in general cause a big kerfuffle until they gave up and accepted it out of frustration, probably.

Unfortunately by the time all of that was sorted, it was too late. My tourist visa was about to expire, which is not really the end of the world. Americans get a 10 year multi-entry visa to China now, which is pretty amazing. Still, you know what that means? Visa run!! Fortunately because of our location we're spoiled for choice. Both Macau and Hong Kong are just an hour or so away, and both count as "other countries".

We planned to go to Macau for a day or two, but a typhoon happened to be coming into the area. Macau is pretty much on the ocean, so instead I decided I'll just hop across the border and back in Hong Kong. Northern Hong Kong is actually pretty mountainous, and besides, I would only be in the "country" for 30 minutes. (more on that later - it was actually closer to 2 hours) Wanting to make a trip of it, Ella tagged along and we decided to explore Shenzhen (The Chinese city on the Mainland China side of the border).

Shenzhen is like the Silicon Valley of China. With about 15 million or so people, most of the big tech companies have their HQ there. Plus it's sort of a gateway to the capitalist world with Hong Kong literally in spitting distance. And that's what I did after we arrived - I took the metro and pretty much left "China". I'm not used to taking the metro to leave a county, so that's a first. Of course the actual process involved walking through immigration. Which, the immigration is in what looks like an old shipping yard. Large concrete structure with ramps, strung lighting, and low ceilings. I took a wrong turn and arrived at the Chinese citizens' exit, after which a security guy pointed me back to the foreigners section. When I tried to leave, another security guard stopped me and said I was not allowed to leave the area. I told him the other guard told me to go to the foreigners exit. He agreed that I was in the wrong place. So.... I was not allowed to leave, but not allowed to proceed? I pointed out how ridiculous this was, but he wasn't having it. I stared at him for a moment and started to walk away, when he finally gave up and escorted me out of the area. When I got to the foreigners section, it was nice! I mean, reverse racism I suppose, but everything was new. I didn't like that, but, I had a border to cross.

So I left "China" to Hong Kong, when I realized that there basically was no way I could just turn back around and go through the border. Shocker, they don't encourage people to visa run. So I had to get onto the metro, which required money, which required an ATM trip, which required breaking the large bills. So I went to a store, took the metro one stop, came back, and exited back into "China" with some "imported" cola and Japanese snacks. I noticed once I crossed how incredibly clean Hong Kong was compared to the mainland. I'm sure Ella and I will visit one day.

Back in Shenzhen, it was already getting kind of late. Still, we had time to visit the Shenzhen Museum. I don't really know what the Shenzhen Museum wants to be. It has various small exhibits, but they seem completely disconnected and mostly unrelated to Shenzhen. Like, they had a diorama of various animals. Cool, but, why? And an exhibit on international trade. Neat, I guess? (Not really, it was actually boring) The one really good exhibit was one that was a mock-up to show how "ancient" (really, before 1980) Shenzhen looked. While a bit overdone in its "traditionalness", it actually was really cool and would have been interesting to live in a city like that.

We checked into our hotel after, and went out for a night on the town, so to speak. We were only here one night so we wanted to at least sample the night life. On the way we stopped by a steak restaurant in an underground mall. Kind of a rare (har har!) thing to see in Asia, they're usually not so big on steak. But what really caught my eye was their steak combo in a cup. Like, a Big Gulp cup. I do not know why it was in a cup, but it made me happy. Behold, in all its glory - the steak cup! Surprisingly it was pretty decent steak. I'm not a huge steak fan, but I definitely have never had one come on top of a lemonade. A memorable experience for sure. Later we poked around a mall and went out to the bar district. A bit expensive and hiso in Shenzhen, but then again we were in the middle of downtown in a city full of young people. The bars did have a really solid beer selection though, so that was nice to see. After a few drinks we turned in early to get a start on the next day.

The next day was an art filled day. We went out to the Window of the World, a very green part of the city full of expensive theme parks. Theme park being like, a folk village and famous word monument miniatures. I know, I know - no roller coasters, although I think there are some near the outskirts. Anyway, there are some free art museums there, but one had no photography. And the other... I just don't understand what it was. A lot of random household objects covered in blue paint, arranged in different ways. I don't get art. If you have those old red and blue 3D glasses, put the blue side up to your eye. Look around your apartment. You just went to that museum.

After we went to a pedestrian area, a sort of outdoor art installation that seems like it would be much cooler if it were more busy. We spent the day looking at different shops before stopping into a coffee shop for a definitely overpriced but much needed coffee. And, no joke, this was one of the best coffees I've had in my life. If Shenzhen can pull out a coffee like this, I don't mind paying $4 for it. And that was mostly it for Shenzhen. We stopped at a Science Museum I wanted to see, but it was clearly designed in the 80s and for little kids. It did have some interesting things, but we just did a quick walk through when we realized everyone here is a parent or a 6 year old. Back on a train to Guangzhou, we made it back home a bit after dinner.

Which is a good thing too, because the typhoon was already starting to pick up. The next day was just a wash (ha!), with high winds and pouring rain. Nothing too extreme, but enough that going out would have been annoying. And later that week, school began. I got to meet my new classes, which I'm pretty happy with. The kids are pretty sweet, and overall good. Definitely more so than Thai kids, they are eager to learn and try out what they know. The only complaint I have is the sheer number of kids spread out over 22 classes - almost 600. Basically, learning names will be impossible. However, I do love my schedule. Or rather, I love how the school schedules things. Every day has a 2.5 hour lunch break, the classes are 35 minutes, and Friday is over by 11am. This definitely means the other days are pretty packed. But being able to come home and eat every meal together with Ella, as well as getting an early start on the weekend is definitely worth it.

But that's about it so far. Ella has not started yet as of writing, but she will in a few days. I'm curious how the high schoolers will compare. But overall, I really like it here. Everything seems to be a nice setup between school and work, and just today it feels like we're settled. I'm feeling optimistic about the year, so let's see how it goes.

So, for our regularly scheduled Guangzhou update.

It's hot here. Not quite Thailand hot, but more humid. Anyway, I finished the two-ish week summer program. While that's not particurarly strenuous, it was every day including the weekend before, during, and after. So that's sort of like a 16 day straight work week, with only 1 sort of day of inbetween. Needless to say I am really glad that's over with. The kids were mostly nice, and some were just delightful. Overall I found the teens pretty similar to Thai teens, but less shy. The kids were the same everywhere, minus one who was crazy ADHD. Not that I am qualified to make that call, but he really tried my patience. Especially when he decided to take everything out of my bag during the middle of a class.

What the heck, man! Anyway, it's all done, and it was a large burden lifted off my shoulders. So what better way to throw a burden back on them with a trip to Qujing, China! Now, both of my faithful readers (mom, and for some reason still someone in Ukraine) may not know about Qujing. But it's Ella's hometown, and we haven't visited her folks since New Years a year and a half-ish ago. So with some time off, it was as good a time as any.As far as life in Qujing, there isn't much to say. We did visit a beautiful temple that was very recently built a bit out in the countryside. But, as I say with Thai Wats and Chinese Temples, if you've seen one, you've seen 99% of them. The only real highlight of the trip was a visit to a local cave. Very very local, it was used as an air raid shelter back in the day. But the inside was beautiful, full of interesting rock formations. And after you go outside, you're in the middle of a covered walkway in the middle of the forest, to go back in another part of the cave. Definitely the most blog-worthy part of the trip. Well, except of course the store named Bull Tit Anus (see photo). But seriously, spending time Ella's parents is nice as well. Her mother is very sweet, and I try to communicate with her Dad (who only speaks a local dialect).

Yes, someone thought this would be a good name for a chain of stores.

Now back in Guangzhou, we had a few day trips out and about to better familiarize ourselves with our home. With previously mentioned Daniel, we spent a day to visit Sun Yat Sen University, regarded as the best University in Southern China. You may not know Sun Yat Sen, but he was the Republic of China's founder. The ROC was the government that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and fled to Taiwan before the Communists took over in 1949. It's odd that he's one of the few people that both the mainland and Taiwan have a lot of respect for. This could be a whole article in and of itself, and maybe that will happen one day. But for now, nice University. Sort of small, but super green.

Speaking of Sun Yat Sen (Or Sys, as the cool kids call him... alright just me), we also went to his memorial hall. A lavish building that doubles as an event space/concert hall, there's not much to it except to see the building itself. The inside has some stuff on the walls about his life, and we saw some kids rehearsing for some sort of thing. Nice enough if you're in the area, but don't go out of your way for it. After we climbed up the mountain behind to see a monument to him on the hill, and to visit the Guangzhou Museum. The GZ Museum isn't exactly large, and I gather that's because all of their stuff got moved to the shiny new Guangdong Museum downtown. And when I say shiny new, I mean covered in glass shiny and 1 hour to get tickets new. We'll eventually get there, but for now, the GZ Museum's main attraction was its fancy building, and lots of pottery. Oh, pottery. As I said in some previous blog, I don't care much for it. All civilizations had it, and it's just chunks of hard brown dirt. But I did see a photo of when Nicholas Cage visited there, so I had that going for me.

The man. The Legend.

So, all caught up? Not quite, we also went to Foshan. Foshan is the city next to Guangzhou, and has a mere 7 million people. However, they make up for it by packing in a lot of history. Foshan is the home of Cantonese Opera, and much more of interest to me, the birthplace of Wing Chun Kung Fu. That includes Ip Man (Bruce Lee's teacher, and the recentish awesome movies about him with Donnie Yen) and Huang Feihong (Portrayed by Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China). It seems they stuck both of these legends in a really cool looking shrine in the middle of town. While, as said previously, "you've seen one temple, you've seen 99%" holds true, this one was one of the nicer ones. It was very well maintained, full of very intricate designs and photo-worthy stuff.

Afterwards we found a really cool looking pedestrian sort of area, which seemed to be pretty closed on a Monday afternoon. A shame, because I bet at night that place is pretty awesome. It's a bit hiso, but it's full of bars and hidden restaurants that I'm sure the "in crowd" of Foshan know about. But after chilling out in a mall, that was about it for this trip to Foshan. It's actually linked to the GZ Metro (First city in the world to link their metro to another city's), so it's amazingly easy to get to, albeit a bit of a trek. There's lots more to see there, and I'm sure we'll be back. But for now, I think just relaxing and having a cold Walmart Great Value Beer (I also cannot believe they exist) unfortunately sounds alright too.

Hello from Guangzhou!

It's funny, but somehow despite not having work, our time has been really busy. I wonder if this is what retirement is like? Anyway, what have we been up to? Mostly domestic things to be honest with you. But before that, let's rundown what has happened over the past few days.

First, we arrived in Shenzhen. Now, the more astute of you will realize that is NOT Guangzhou. It is however, another massive city (4th largest in China? 5th? It's big ya'll). We also arrived at around 1am, which is of course the best time ever to arrive. We definitely overpaid (well, $20 a night) for a hotel with a... questionable reputation. Not dangerous, but when a hotel charges by the hour, you know you're not in the Presidential Suite. Anyway, we pretty much just passed the hell out immediately, to wake up the next morning and go to the train station.

Guangzhou is about 30-45 minutes north of Shenzhen, and the journey was surprisingly easy. We had planned to meet the coordinator of our school, but she was sick and pregnant that day. (I mean to say she was sick that day - she presumably knew she was pregnant prior. Maybe?) Anyway, she asked if we could meet her tomorrow. That meant one more day in a hotel. We had seen a bunch of hostels next to the train station, but those are actually just private apartments people put on Baidu (China's Google) to make some cash. Ella went looking, and only found a sign that said "These are not hostels - residents are not permitted to rent out their rooms" or something along those lines. Anyway, we stayed in a cheap hotel nearby. I'd like to say we went out for the day and had an amazing time, but nope nope. You know how tiring it is dragging your whole life behind you for the last 2 and a half days? Very. So, we stayed in and just had a much needed day of recovery. We were staying near a 7-11 (yay!), which is less nice than the Thai/Taiwanese versions. However, they do beer right. They have lots of imports, mostly from Germany and Belgium (seriously?). They're also only about $1 each for a tallboy. Don't mind if I do! Domestics are about 40-50 cents for a small can. I've gone on record before, but you could do a lot worse than Harbin for a beer. I am skeptical my liver will survive my time here.

Anyway, the next day we made our way out to the school. We met our coordinator, and perhaps this will come back to bite me if she reads this blog one day... but she was the most aloof coordinator ever. She took us through this massive, massive campus to where our apartment was (mind you, we're still dragging our life), only to find the apartment wasn't ready yet. So she offered us another, on the 9th floor, with no elevator.

No thanks.

So she offered yet another, on the 4th. That sounded better, if only because I don't want to travel 18 flights of stairs a day. And it's where the other foreign teachers live, so why wasn't that option #1? After letting us into our apartment, she immediately took us to meet another higher up at the school. We were just exhausted at that point, and then we were thrust into a giant meal and talking about work. Sheesh. Could we have like, 10 minutes to catch our breath? Especially because after that, everyone said "Ok goodbye - see you in 2 months."

Seriously. It's the summer, so we have our apartment, and the campus is mostly empty. I imagine it's how a king in an empty castle feels. Lonely, a bit creepy at night, with no obligations other than some occasional paperwork for my visa. Jeez, it's like Thailand all over again!

We did get a chance to meet fellow teacher Adam, who just quit after staying here for 8(!) years. He had lots of good things to say, which was encouraging. Also, we got to raid his apartment for things, and got kitchen supplies, furniture, a bike, and even a guitar. So, thanks Adam for making us feel super welcome by... giving us all your stuff I guess.

So staring at 2 months of free-ish time, Ella and I have mostly been getting our place in shape. But not only that, we have of course been exploring our neighborhood and the city at large. We're a bit on the north of town, but still within the metro. The school is across from a small shopping center and village with some pretty good local restaurants (and a KFC, obviously), but it's sort of an island of civilization. Just a ways out is pretty much nothing. It's nice in a way, and I even noticed how much cleaner the air here is compared to anywhere else in China. And not in another way, because if the local village doesn't have what you need you need to take a bus/cab/metro somewhere. Still, it seems the campus has everything you could ever want, sort of like a city in itself (when all the shops open). I'm eager to start.

Now, as far as Gaungzhou itself. Well, it feels like a Chinese city. Crowded for sure, but overall people here are a little more chill than Hangzhou, and especially the north. While the sort-of-amorphous-line-up is still present, people aren't as pushy or nearly as loud. Honestly Beijing folk, do you need to use your outside voice when speaking to the person next to you? However, people still do try to get on trains and elevators before other people get off, which just astounds me with its idiocy. Still, it's diet China.

As far as sights, we've taken a few days to go around. We first went to a pedestrian shopping area called Changshou Road. It's nice, with traditional style architecture, but it's just a walking street. I imagine they appeal more to women, but overall it was nice to see. We got drenched from the rain and cut our visit kind of short, but definitely worth it to go back. We also saw another sight nearby, Shamian Island. It's an island in the loosest of terms, as its more like a moat that separates it from the city. But regardless, it's a strange place. Its sort of like The Bund in Shanghai, but if you limited the buildings to 2 stories tall. Very colonial type of architecture in a very well maintained park. We saw lots of couples taking wedding photos there, and for good reason I suppose. It's full of kitchy shops and old men jogging, which is all I want in life.

Moving on, we saw the Chen Clan Museum. So, this place was when the Chen family, who I guess were a big deal, came to Guangzhou, they had a place to stay. Now it's just an old Chinese style house, similar to the one in Taipei that I forget the name of. But if you needed your fill of intricate wood screens, gardens, and covered walkways, this place was your jam. To fulfill the traditional Chinese quota, we also went to the Banyan Tree Temple (Not to be confused with the Banyan Tree Hotel in Bangkok - I think?) This one was a little disappointing, because they have a giant pagoda that you are not allowed in. Other than that it's just a temple. Nice I guess, but I mean, c'mon. Giant tower! Later when I went to take a picture of it, I noticed it had a pretty substantial tilt to it. So... hmm. Maybe not then. We followed up with a trip to Beijing Street, another pedestrian only area but a bit more upscale. It reminded me a lot of Ximen in Taipei, and seems to be where all the "cool kids" (minus me) hang out.

Now, we went to a few more places, unexpectedly, with new friends - Daniel and Mike. I have always maintained those are some of the best names for folks, and this is no exception. Daniel is a lawyer, and Mike is his assistant. We were put in touch with Daniel because he is eager to learn English, and I may be his teacher. He's a bit older, getting ready for retirement, so I was curious as to why he wanted to learn. His answer is pretty strange, that he thinks Western culture is more civilized than Eastern.

Come again? The people that invented the deep fried twinkie are more civilized? Anyway, he likes to read books a lot and is very well traveled. He took us around for the day in Baiyun Mountain, a beautiful park just a stones throw away from school. We had a giant, and in traditional Chinese fashion, way too large meal about 1/3rd of the way up. Baiyun Mountain is about 400 meters tall, and one day I'll get up to the top. For comparison, the highest one I climbed in Taipei was about 1200 meters. After we went to Yuexiu Park. I don't want to say too much about it because it's full of museums and other attractions, we'll go there another time. But for this outing, it was just to walk around and chat, along with seeing the 5 Ram Statue. You may ask, "What is this statue and why did you see it?" Excellent question, anonymous reader. As the legend goes, Guangzhou used to be pretty shitty, farm-wise. Then some people prayed, and 5 rams came from heaven with bundles of rice in their mouths. Then they said "Baaaa Ram Ewe" and exploded.

Hahaha no, sorry... Warcraft joke. They actually made the land the "most prosperous in China" and then turned into stone. Which, if that's the case, they turned to stone at the most awkward godamn position they could think of. Anyway, this gave Guangzhou the nickname "Ram City", which is also the name of my Techno cover band.

Whew! And that's about it so far! I feel we've barely scratched the surface of Guangzhou. There's a lot more here to do, not to mention all the other cities nearby. I'm especially interested in one of our suburbs, Foshan. It's sort of the "kung fu" birthplace of China, where people like Ip Man and Bruce Lee lived. Who knows when we'll make it there, but it all seems like it's next door. We've started to get our little place together, and it's coming together quite well. I guess I'll end with a few pics of that, and I'm sure there will be more to come soon.