Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Still waiting to work
I have until next week to start work, which means I have alot of down time. The internet in my apartment is not going to be repaired until approximately Thanksgiving, so I have to do all my internet work from the office. That is fine, however the internet connection is less than optimal. It is probably at the speed of high speed dial up right now.
Supposedly, the CCP has been intentionally slowing internet speeds to help prevent internal disruption of China pending the resolution of the communist party's congress in Beijing. This event involves transitioning power for another ten years to a new premier.
Supposedly, the internet has been slowed and is being heavily monitored. So it is more than likely that someone from China is reading my blog.
Of perhaps more import is the fact that I have page hits originating from China, despite this blog being blocked by the "great firewall of China" which blocks blogspot and blogger. I am able to access and post to my blog by means of a virtual private network that connects me with a server outside of mainland china, hence not subject to the great firewall.
So, I have been whiling my time away, getting organized for my first class, and staying out of trouble.
Unfortunately, I spent 299.00 on Rosettastone software to help learn chinese and another 217.00 on MS Office, so my cash flow is waning. Hopefully I will get paid soon.
Supposedly, the CCP has been intentionally slowing internet speeds to help prevent internal disruption of China pending the resolution of the communist party's congress in Beijing. This event involves transitioning power for another ten years to a new premier.
Supposedly, the internet has been slowed and is being heavily monitored. So it is more than likely that someone from China is reading my blog.
Of perhaps more import is the fact that I have page hits originating from China, despite this blog being blocked by the "great firewall of China" which blocks blogspot and blogger. I am able to access and post to my blog by means of a virtual private network that connects me with a server outside of mainland china, hence not subject to the great firewall.
So, I have been whiling my time away, getting organized for my first class, and staying out of trouble.
Unfortunately, I spent 299.00 on Rosettastone software to help learn chinese and another 217.00 on MS Office, so my cash flow is waning. Hopefully I will get paid soon.
First Weekend - Sunday
I woke up early on Sunday and made a skype call back to the states. Then I got a text from one of the other american teachers inviting me to a church service held by some expatriates.
I took the bus over with the 4 other english teachers. The service was attended by around 100 people, all american or canadien, and all living in Wuhan. Although it was ostensibly non denominational, the preacher for the sermon was a visiting british man who was kind of evangelical.
I really cringe at protestant services. There is something kind of wierd about doing a prayer huddle and getting all woozy and swaying hands over the place. I want to just be nice, but it makes me feel weird.
I met some nice people, who don't seem to be moonies After we went to a local restaurant that sells big bacon burgers and ice cream It is themed as a hawaiian restaurant and is owned by americans. I had a very non kosher bacon cheese burger.
I walked around a bit with another teacher who showed me where the dvd store is. You can buy very cheap dvds which are completely pirated.
My weekend closed out with reading my biography of Mao.
Good weekend overall.
I took the bus over with the 4 other english teachers. The service was attended by around 100 people, all american or canadien, and all living in Wuhan. Although it was ostensibly non denominational, the preacher for the sermon was a visiting british man who was kind of evangelical.
I really cringe at protestant services. There is something kind of wierd about doing a prayer huddle and getting all woozy and swaying hands over the place. I want to just be nice, but it makes me feel weird.
I met some nice people, who don't seem to be moonies After we went to a local restaurant that sells big bacon burgers and ice cream It is themed as a hawaiian restaurant and is owned by americans. I had a very non kosher bacon cheese burger.
I walked around a bit with another teacher who showed me where the dvd store is. You can buy very cheap dvds which are completely pirated.
My weekend closed out with reading my biography of Mao.
Good weekend overall.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
First Weekend - Saturday
So despite the fact that my week is structured more or less like my weekend right now because I am waiting to start work, I tried to go out and do some exploration of the mega city.
On friday I had a tasty bottle of great wall wine after I got a new cell phone set up. I had some tasty skewers sold to me by a Hui street vendor. They are ubiquitous at any place where people gather, and have a distinctly mongol appearance as opposed to the racial characteristics of the majority Han population. They also wear prayer skullcaps like all good muslims. I said Hi to my vendor guy and said "asalaam Maleekum" to which he replied "asalaikam salaam". That made me feel pretty good. The skewers are lamb covered in spices and are very very tasty.
On saturday, I had made plans to meet someone from the agency I work for to visit the yellow crane tower. So I got up reasonably early, made myself some toast and oatmeal, and with no directions or advice, went forth to the bus station.
It was only the second bus driver I asked who indicated that his bus went to Wu-Chan. Wu-Chan is the downtown area of the city. Originally, Wuhan was three separate cities that grew together to form one city. The locals now refer to the different sections as districts.
I have seldom been on as crowded a bus before. After about a half hour, the bus started to venture through a large public park. I hopped out and had a nice walk through some pretty trees and grassy places. I eventually wandered into another park called turtle mountain, where there is a huge 18 meter high painting depicting the ancient battles that took place in this region. There also is a TV tower, a gondola that goes out over the city, a giant bronze ceremonial bowl and some statues. It was a nice walk.
I was now pretty lost and needed to meet up with my friend. Fortunately, there was a holiday inn that I stumbled upon. The front desk clerk gave me a handy preprinted card with the names of the local landmarks in Chinese. A pretty cool god send for taking a taxi with. I hopped into my taxi and went to the Yellow Crane Tower.
I hopped out near the tower at a statute t commemorate the 1911 revolution that ended the 1500 year Qing dynasty. There was also a chrysanthemum festival so the city square was full of blooming chrysanthemums. Thousands of them. Very pretty.
I wandered around and ate some fried rice at a japanese chain restaurant. Then went into the yellow crane tower, which is one attraction of a rather large cultural park.
My friend had not yet arrived, so I went into the first building I found which was a music auditorium with a lone person playing some sort of string instrument. The music was reminiscent of a psychedelic guitarist! It was kind of a trip.
In the darkness of the auditorium, I think I saw a mongoose or some strange animal like a cat jumping in the shadows. Pretty wierd. I was the only person in the auditorium who was not sleeping. Me and three sleeping park employees and someone playing this crazy wailing string instrument, with large feline creatures leaping in the shadows.
My friend arrived and he explained to me about how the Yellow Crane Tower was the spot where the famous Li Bai, a Tang dynasty poet, wrote a poem about how sad he was when his friends sailed away on the Yangtse.
Li Bai is also famous for being a heavy wine drinker. He is said to have exclaimed that a bottle of wine contains 1,000 lines of poetry. I think me and Li Bai see eye to eye on this.
There was a nice gallery of calligraphy and water colors. The park is rather large and has alot of attractions.
There was a gigantic bronze bell that school children where banging on with a giant pice of timber suspended on ropes.
I went to the top of the tower and had a view of the mists over the yangtse river.
After that was done we went out to eat where I had some great local dishes and beer. I ate beef lung for the first time and some delicious mushrooms. All in all a good day and now I know my way around a little better.
I will post another update about Sunday, which was less interesting but still worth reporting.
On friday I had a tasty bottle of great wall wine after I got a new cell phone set up. I had some tasty skewers sold to me by a Hui street vendor. They are ubiquitous at any place where people gather, and have a distinctly mongol appearance as opposed to the racial characteristics of the majority Han population. They also wear prayer skullcaps like all good muslims. I said Hi to my vendor guy and said "asalaam Maleekum" to which he replied "asalaikam salaam". That made me feel pretty good. The skewers are lamb covered in spices and are very very tasty.
On saturday, I had made plans to meet someone from the agency I work for to visit the yellow crane tower. So I got up reasonably early, made myself some toast and oatmeal, and with no directions or advice, went forth to the bus station.
It was only the second bus driver I asked who indicated that his bus went to Wu-Chan. Wu-Chan is the downtown area of the city. Originally, Wuhan was three separate cities that grew together to form one city. The locals now refer to the different sections as districts.
I have seldom been on as crowded a bus before. After about a half hour, the bus started to venture through a large public park. I hopped out and had a nice walk through some pretty trees and grassy places. I eventually wandered into another park called turtle mountain, where there is a huge 18 meter high painting depicting the ancient battles that took place in this region. There also is a TV tower, a gondola that goes out over the city, a giant bronze ceremonial bowl and some statues. It was a nice walk.
I was now pretty lost and needed to meet up with my friend. Fortunately, there was a holiday inn that I stumbled upon. The front desk clerk gave me a handy preprinted card with the names of the local landmarks in Chinese. A pretty cool god send for taking a taxi with. I hopped into my taxi and went to the Yellow Crane Tower.
I hopped out near the tower at a statute t commemorate the 1911 revolution that ended the 1500 year Qing dynasty. There was also a chrysanthemum festival so the city square was full of blooming chrysanthemums. Thousands of them. Very pretty.
I wandered around and ate some fried rice at a japanese chain restaurant. Then went into the yellow crane tower, which is one attraction of a rather large cultural park.
My friend had not yet arrived, so I went into the first building I found which was a music auditorium with a lone person playing some sort of string instrument. The music was reminiscent of a psychedelic guitarist! It was kind of a trip.
In the darkness of the auditorium, I think I saw a mongoose or some strange animal like a cat jumping in the shadows. Pretty wierd. I was the only person in the auditorium who was not sleeping. Me and three sleeping park employees and someone playing this crazy wailing string instrument, with large feline creatures leaping in the shadows.
My friend arrived and he explained to me about how the Yellow Crane Tower was the spot where the famous Li Bai, a Tang dynasty poet, wrote a poem about how sad he was when his friends sailed away on the Yangtse.
Li Bai is also famous for being a heavy wine drinker. He is said to have exclaimed that a bottle of wine contains 1,000 lines of poetry. I think me and Li Bai see eye to eye on this.
There was a nice gallery of calligraphy and water colors. The park is rather large and has alot of attractions.
There was a gigantic bronze bell that school children where banging on with a giant pice of timber suspended on ropes.
I went to the top of the tower and had a view of the mists over the yangtse river.
After that was done we went out to eat where I had some great local dishes and beer. I ate beef lung for the first time and some delicious mushrooms. All in all a good day and now I know my way around a little better.
I will post another update about Sunday, which was less interesting but still worth reporting.
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