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.