April through July 8th

Once again, sorry it has been so long. I have been pretty busy. I guess the last time you heard from me was more than two months ago. In that time I have traveled around the country a bit. Linda has always wanted to go to Guilin, and we had a guest so we went back to Beijing. I also experienced my first few earthquakes.

Guilin is in a beautiful part of the country, the southern province of Guangxi Zhuangzu. It has mountains shaped by sea currents and ice ages. The insides can be hollow, and the great fingers reach toward the sky covered in bamboo forests. The Li Jiang (river) runs from this inland city south to Yangshuo, which is a touristy mountain area with shops and merchants lining the piers and streets. The area only has a population of about a million people, but it sees over 15 million tourists come through each year. A cool fact is that Guilin was used as the planet Kashyyyk, home of Wookies, in Star Wars: Episode III; also, the 20 Yuan bill has the Li River on the back.

I saw an interesting fishing technique. They use the Cormorant, a kind of bird. (It looks kind of like a loon, but with a different beak and it swims more like a dolphin.) A snare is tied near the base of the bird's throat, which allows the bird only to swallow small fish. When the bird captures and tries to swallow a large fish, the fish is caught in the bird's throat. When the bird returns to the fisherman's raft, the fisherman helps the bird to remove the fish from its throat. It’s very odd to see happen, but the bird can catch 15 kilograms a day.

The Guilin area is said to be the most beautiful in China. I can understand why. The greens of the mountains are vibrant even during an overcast rainy day. The caves in the area are big enough to hold a wedding reception in, and I am pretty sure they do.

Linda and I only spent a couple days in the area, but it was such a wonderful treat to have fresh air. We had gotten two days off in a row at the beginning May because China declared Friday to be Sunday and Sunday to be Friday for the Labor Day holiday.

We got back and I wanted a copy of Iron Man. It was in the theaters, but only in Chinese. So we walked to Xiao Zhai to see our favorite bootleg DVD dealer. Along the way I stopped in some shops and had a Rou Jia Mo, or Xi’an Hamburger if you are in other parts of the country. A Rou Jia Mo is a pita bread sliced and stuffed with beef that has been boiling in soy vinegar. They are very popular as a local specialty. They also have vegetarian Jia Mo’s (so Mom, don’t worry you can have one of those in October while Dad and I eat the good ones).

May 12, Linda and I were going shopping in Xi'an when the earthquake occurred in Chengdu, about 400 miles to the south-southwest. We were approaching a major intersection only a few blocks from our destination of Xiao Zhai when we heard commotion from across the street. Some people across the street began yelling. It was localized at first, and we thought there was a fight or something. We stepped closer to the street to get a view of what was going on because at this point lots more people were yelling. Some began running. It actually reminded me of Godzilla. The people seemed to be looking over their shoulders and all around. I was not sure if it was a bomb or a gun or what. By this point I was beginning to feel disoriented. It was a feeling of being drunk and stumbling, mixed with a feeling of wanting to pass out or fall against a wall. Your sense of balance becomes distorted and you want to fall over. I just grabbed on to Linda and pulled her tight because now people were stampeding out of the buildings and shops near us. Several people flipped over the barrier that separates the side walk from the street. There was a wide median between the east and west bound lanes of traffic that was quickly filling up with people. The trees were swaying and when I looked up at a tall building in the distance I could see it visibly waving (like a wacky waving inflatable tube man). The quake continued for several minutes with us looking about and keeping an eye on the people that were scurrying around. When it was over Linda, Who-has-been-in-dozens-of-earthquakes said, "Okay, let's go see if the shops are open." Of course, I was still excited about being in my first earthquake. We marched up onto the bridge and crossed the street. The scene was more exciting and panicked than any of the pictures that I snapped depict, so I won’t bore you with them. We continued past thousands of people standing in the streets and running past the glass buildings. We met another American and a Brit who were looking for an English version of Iron Man as well, so we all walked together taking pictures and hoping that the shops would open up again soon. We stood at the top of the stairs at Xiao Zhai waiting for our DVD guy to come back (yes, we have a guy). Shop workers did come back, but only to lock up their stores more securely. Linda and I left the Brit and American who were studying at Xi'an Normal University and continued walking. We saw people sitting on the sidewalks in groups, children excitedly telling their parents what their teachers had them do, the children's hospital on the corner was evacuated and everyone was in the parking lot. Shops were not opening again. People had their small transistor radios out, and were listing to the news. Linda and I arrived home a few hours after the quake, and I left to get food. The supermarket was closed so I just picked up some fruit at one of the smaller stores. People and cars were lining the streets. Many refused to go back inside, some others were packing big “Rubbermaid” storage containers with emergency supplies and putting it in their cars which they would not put into the underground parking garages, or anywhere near a tall building. We went walking later that night, and saw people sleeping on the sidewalks. They had cots or mats or even entire beds lining the roads. The children had blankets or their mothers’ arms in which to rest. Many were running and playing, grateful not to be doing homework. The cars still lined the streets, many with people inside them. Linda was amazed that they were so afraid, but this is an area that does not normally get earthquakes. Chengdu and other cities got hit VERY hard. The earthquake was felt for several minutes in Beijing and trigged a second quake there. Shanghai felt it too. This would be an area equal in size and location to from Chicago all the way to Kansas and over to New York and down to Hilton Head. I read today they felt it as far away as Pakistan.

Fear does weird things to people. They handle it in different ways. Some become paralyzed by it, others become more alert and responsive. It can inhibit or motivate. People are sleeping in the parks tonight even though there have not been any aftershocks here. There have been many further south, and actually they progressed north toward Xi'an, The USGS has a cool map that shows how they are progressing.

We have had several aftershocks. One came while I was teaching a class. We are on the fourth floor, so all the students, teachers, and staff took the stairs. The little ones were crying and some of the bigger students were rushing a bit, but for the most part it was a calm and orderly evacuation. It was less fun than my first earthquake experience, though, because I had to look after the students.

The government began sending out text messages to all mobile phones with the days’ earthquake activity and saying days and times that they believed could have an earthquake. The newspapers began publishing articles warning that there would be an earthquake “between 1:30p.m and 3:00 p.m.” To my knowledge earthquake science has not progressed that far. It drove all of us nuts because the people were scared and not going to work and taking extreme precautions. I taught the boy who cried wolf in most of my classes after that began. It has been almost two months, and the tents and mats that filled the parks and lined the sidewalks are finally gone.

In the middle of May Saint Mary’s University MIB students visited China. This time I was one of the people with whom they visited. I told them how things differed and some of the various observations I have made regarding the economy, news media, the internet, government, the environment, and just living abroad. We then went out to dinner, where we randomly met up with other Saint Mary’s students that are home for the summer. I ate cow stomach for the first time that night. We took rickshaws back to the hotel and just chatted for a while. I was hoping to see them again, but I was swamped with work as it was the weekend.

The next week Linda’s friend Morgan from St. Louis came to visit. She spent a week with us, the Cubs are doing very well so I was able to deal with her Cardinals fan thoughts being in my appartment. We took a day off and went to Beijing to show her the sites. The city looks much better now than it did when I was there in May, 2007. The preparations for the Olympics have been pretty impressive. They have even replaced most of the misspelled words in the airport and even around the city. An even more interesting thing is that they have installed a few western style toilets in some of the bathrooms. Though if you go to the Summer Palace, the girls say it is still a squatter.

One problem that we did have is that even when we were speaking Chinese, the taxi drivers did not always know the location of the Olympic venues. The National Stadium, commonly referred to as "the Birds nest", was like a black hole of knowledge for the drivers. We did rejoice when we got to TGI Fridays and had sour cream for the first time in months.

The girls went on an adventure to the Great Wall for a day. I stayed in the city looking for other western foods that we could not get in Xi'an. I did not find any that I was interested in. I did get a birthday present for my brother though. The girls met some interesting people on their tour, including some people that had survived the earthquakes in southwestern China. They told stories of others coming back to the hostel covered in blood and of people helping others down a mountain that was directly above the epicenter. Some were only carrying body parts and walking around aimlessly.

Beijing is more expensive than Xi'an, which, I suppose, is to be expected. But I am always impressed when I go to the Silk Market in Beijing and have the people try to charge me RMB350 (almost $44) for shorts and then I end up talking them down to around RMB 75 (just over $9). It is a funny system, but bargaining can be beneficial if you know what something SHOULD cost.

On June 28, 2008 I saw the mountains just outside Xi'an from work and home for the first time since I got here. I stepped out of work Saturday in the late afternoon, and turned to the left as I normally do. There before me was a magnificent sight. Towering above the high rises were the mountains that surround Xi’an. Every intersection that I came to I would look both ways and just stare through clear air all the way to the mountains. The mountains had obviously been there all along, but I would never had known if I was not out on this one day. It was not a perfectly clear sight there was still a tiny bit of haze, but to see something so large for the first time in 6 months, except for when we drove out to them, was very impressive. It was also very sad. The people of Xi’an consider this pollution to be normal and common thing throughout the world.

It is now the 4^th of July. I have been working around 30 classroom hours per week for the last couple weeks, waiting for summer session to begin and to get new classes. Many of the hours that I have been working were 1 to 1’s. The universities in China require that students know English. Hong Kong University teaches in English and many of my students listed as their main objective “to go abroad.” So the kids come to us to practice their English before the interviews and classes.

I have begun my own private Chinese lessons. I have been here long enough that the Chinese characters no longer simply look like fireworks. My employer, English First, provides basic Chinese classes, and I have learned to sing a song, ask basic questions, and give basic responses. I have felt the need to go a bit further in my studies, learn to write the characters and have a more complete conversation. Below is a great website that I use to practice my tones. There are four tones in Chinese. The different tones change the entire meaning of what would otherwise be the same word, so it is important to speak them properly and to be able to recognize them when you hear them. I added some new things to my computer so that I can start typing in Chinese. For instance this is my apartment number

博文南段盛事华蛗7# - 2 - 10 - 02. http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable/pinyintable_vertical.php

We are beginning to feel like the Chinese Government doesn’t actually want anyone to go come to China during the Olympics. It is extremely difficult to get a Visa and many of the hotels still have empty rooms. The government does not seem to care about the low attendance or making any of their $40,000,000,000 back from Olympic construction. They simply want the world to see how “perfect” things are running in this country and how they are as developed as any nation. Some of the people are getting upset with the current inflation rate throughout the world, but for the last couple of months the inflation rate in China has been around 8%.

I have pictures up on Picasa. The beer is Guinness Foreign Extra.

Okay, happy Independence Day everyone.

My RMB 1,200 week

Sorry it has been so long I have been very busy. Also again sorry if it looks terrible I can not see it. If you are responding to anything I write, please keep it clean and also know that I will not be able to see it till October, unless, China opens things up for the Olympics, but due to things happening in certain areas of Asia this does not look likely. I have however, posted many of my pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/rfoody, and Facebook, so that you can see them along with my reading my stories.

Linda wanted a guitar, as I have said before. So we ventured over to Xiao Zhai. Xiao Zhai is basically an outdoor market/mall that sells clothes and beads and musical instruments, and DVD’s for RMB 6 or USD 1. She paid about RMB 400 for the acoustic guitar, and digital tuner. The store also had violins, and other instruments for about the same price. This was before Valentines Day. We also ventured south to a store similar to Costco or Sam’s Club. As we walked around we found Betty Crocker brownie mix and butter and cream cheese. We saw Tabasco and tuna. There is even cheese at a reasonable price. We quickly went home and grabbed more money. This is a cash economy few places except credit cards. We were able to have mashed potatoes with real butter that night. On Valentines Day we treated ourselves to steamed brownies (we did not have an oven).

We had a big day in March. We had badminton in the morning with our co-workers. Every Thursday the office plays from 10:30 till about noon. Court rentals costs RMB 20 for an hour. Linda and I went and enjoyed our work out as we had been doing for several weeks at that point. After badminton though we knew we had a lot of work to do. A couple of walls in her room and in mine too were covered literally floor to ceiling with mould. Now mould can add color and texture and I am sure other good things to a wall, but it is actually very lethal- as I have learned by growing up with two people that deal with insurance issues. So our plan was to scrub and bleach the walls and then paint them. We just had to get the bleach and towels and paint. Also for about two weeks at this point I had been in possession of basil seeds. My co-worker had given them to me because basil is not a common ingredient used in China or found in China and I had made comments about how that simply did not jive with my cooking talents. Anyway I had the seeds, but no pot or soil to let them germinate and prosper.

After badminton we began our quest to acquire all of the supplies we needed. My first priority (maybe in error) was to acquisition the pot and soil. At this point it had begun raining a bit and there was no direct bus to where we wanted to go and we are frugal and did not feel like paying for a taxi even though to get across town costs only about RMB 30 or USD $ 5, and we only had to go about a quarter of the way across town (cheap I know). The rain was gradually increasing in size and quantity, as we walked. Linda kept saying we have to find an umbrella (as acid rain is not good for your hair), but we were on the wrong street to do that. We did stop into a pharmacy to get her some medicine for her “tummy”, which was bothering her a bit.

The interesting thing about Chinese medicine is that you should take four of whatever they give you. In general they are herbal medicines that are simply not as concentrated as our own pharmaceuticals. Luckily we still had water left over from badminton.

The rain continued and we walked on a few more blocks. Finally we came to a bus stop for bus number 700. The 700 goes east on a street about 1km south of the city wall. Basically from where I work clear across town. We hopped on the bus, but only for a couple stops. I thought it was the right place to get off and Linda wanted to stop at a Bank of China and take out some money. Turns out we were still about 1.5 km from the plant market. We walked the rest of the way turning down small dark alleys in hopes that they would lead to our desired destination. The majority of the time though, they were simply dead ends or shopping markets. The walk continued with each of us avoiding the huge puddles that were now forming at the street corners and along the potholed alleyways. Unfortunately, I became distracted with all that was around me except of course what was below me.

I stepped into what seemed to be an endless pothole, but I knew it had an end because it had already filled up with water. The small lake was being fed by three rivers which resulted from the streets sloping into this one alleyway. The urban Amazon was forming before my eyes and I was mesmerized by the amount of water that could cascade down one street. Unfortunately, that is why I wound up stepping in the pothole that now competed with Lake Baikal in Russia. Having my shoes sopping wet completed my rain soaked misery. I was happy that it washed off most of the dog poop which I had stepped in earlier in our city trek.

We finally passed a supermarket and Linda, soaked to the bone, insisted on stopping to get an umbrella. I decided I did not deserve one or even to share with her as she kept offering since we had not yet arrived at the plant market. We ended up going around the block that the plant market is on and the blocks are about 1/3 of a km long. We kept walking and walking and looped around a bit but finally we began to see furniture stores (the indication that our coworker gave me that we were getting closer.)

We stepped into the greenhouse from the rain, and it was like walking from the movie Judge Dread into The Secret Garden. The smells were of fresh air with little to no dust or pollutants. The aisles were lined with potted plants of all shapes and sizes. Cactuses sat in rows upon a shelf. Ferns were on the floor. Trees stood tall and strong reaching for the translucent roof that shone brightly with the suns light.

Linda and I searched around the garden supply market for some time trying to find a rectangular pot that would fit on my window sill and still be tall enough to let my basil establish a strong and intricate root system so that it would be confident to grow tall and provide many leaves for my culinary needs.

We found a white ovular pot that stands about 4 inches tall and 6 inches long. It was only 4 inches wide so it would fit on the window sill in my room. We made sure that it came with a base to catch any excess water that I may give it in a day. The flowers painted on the one side excited Linda so she was pleased with my purchase too. We got three bags of soil (complete with worms and pill bugs and I am certain at least ten other species), and a spray bottle because I believe it is a good way to water an indoor plant. Such as this one would be.

We proceeded to walk back towards home and along the way stop in the hardware district of town. The hardware district is a street about 1km west of the greenhouse district that we were currently at. The street was lined with plumbing stores, tool stores, electrical stores, carpentry stores, and paint stores. We did have to wind around the massive construction project that was being erected, a massive complex of a shopping mall and about twelve very large apartment buildings, all going up at the same time. The paint store was one of the first stores we came to.

Despite Linda’s language skills we did not know how to say anti-mould paint. We kept looking around the store for something that would have it, but all we could find was a box of grout in English that said “anti mould,” with still no Chinese translation. We decided to just hope for the best and got a 3kg can of white paint and two brushes. We were very tired and wet at this point so we decided to forget about the RMB 1 number 35 bus that would take us from the hardware store and drop us one block from our flat. We hailed a taxi and relished being dropped off in front of our complex. After a quick shower to warm up, we wiped the walls of mould and set off to get some more shopping done. We thought we deserved a treat. French toast and bacon were on our mind so we went to Metro to get the needed supplies of cinnamon and bacon which are not sold in most stores.

Over time you begin to miss an oven. You can survive without it, but the absence of baked goods that you enjoyed throughout your life do create a void in your diet. We finally caved in and bought a toaster oven (mostly because we wanted to try making brownies again). We shopped around pricing several different models at different stores. There were small ones with basically an on and off switch for about RMB 200 or USD $50. There were bigger ones that remind my of the Ronco rotisserie oven like on the infomercials for about RMB 700 USD $ 100. We finally ended up at our favorite store Metro. We went with a purpose- to find a toaster oven that is right for us; and we left absolutely elated. There were several models to choose from, but we did not want all of the bells and whistles. We found the perfect one though. It is white with a clear glass door that opens down. It has top and bottom heating coils and a cooking rack and a concave grease catch that we can use with the rotisserie (actually I do not know when I will ever use it, so I would love some suggestions.)

Here is some of the stuff I have made so far.

Meat loaf

Items needed: ground pork, ground beef (veal if you want or combine turkey and pork for healthier alternative)

Mix meats in bowl with ½ an onion (diced fine) parsley if you have some we don’t so I don’t put it in, 1 egg, Worcestershire sauce (again I don’t have any here) bread crumbs or I prefer oatmeal and some tomato sauce (I didn’t have any so I used ketchup)

Shape so that is looks like a loaf of bread place in high walled pan and bake for an hour drain grease if needed.

Apple Crisp

Apples sliced

Some flour brown sugar, and oatmeal mixed together and put on top of the apples in a deep baking dish

Bake for about ½ an hour or until golden brown

Apple Pie

Crust: Flour, water, butter, sugar (they say shortening and salt too but we don’t have that here)

Apples sliced

Cinnamon and sugar, but they have premade apple pie spice mixes too

Brownies

Follow directions on box:)

Oh but you should use apple sauce rather than oil much better for you and tastes exactly the same.

Xin Nian Kui Le

New Year (Xin Nian) Shin Neean

Spring Festival (Chun Jie) Chewin Gee-a

We got a week off for the Chinese Lunar New Year (as opposed to the Gregorian New Year which is also celebrated here), or Spring Festival, which was nice, despite the cold. The shops and stores closed early in the week. So we had to make sure to have our groceries picked up from the super market by Tuesday. Linda and I went together to make sure that we got everything that we would need. Linda went when she was hungry and ended up buying half the chocolate in the store, along with every other heavy thing that she could find. So our walk back to the flat was a bit strenuous, but I feel it was my workout for the day.

The celebration has, it seems, been going on since I before I got here. Small explosions can be heard throughout the day followed immediately, of course by car alarms. The week of the Lunar New Year the explosions began to pick up. The street corners were filled with packages of fire crackers stacked as tall as I stand. Little boys and grown men had smiles on their faces as they would bend over with a lighter igniting the fuse. The sizzle and sparks were the only warning to passers-by of any danger ahead. Linda and I were grateful if it was just a small pop of the equivalent to our Black Cats.

As we left for our coworkers flat we walked the two blocks to the bus stop (I will go into how great public transportation is in a future entry) pausing or speeding up to avoid the explosions along the sidewalks. We came to the bus stop just as a man was igniting the fuse of a mortar round. We paused in wonderment as he was dong it in the middle of a packed parking lot of a restaurant. The man was obviously an employee of the upper class restaurant which had Mercedes and BMW’s and other automobiles sitting in the parking lot waiting for their owners to finish their meal so that they could themselves get in the safe underground parking lots that protect them most nights. The first mortar round launched high into the air exploding in a brilliant green that reflected off the curved glass of the restaurant to the delight of the diners inside. The second launched, but only went up maybe three meters and exploded with a thunder so massive that our ears were left ringing and unable to hear what were most likely tremendous echoes off the near by buildings. The red “stars”( http://people.howstuffworks.com/fireworks.htm) came shooting out of the shell in what seemed to me like slow motion. They careened into the fancy cars with white sparks trailing in their wake. One star split the distance between Linda and I as we stood near each other in awe at the danger all around us. We quickly made our way to the street and behind the protection of the bus stop glass.

The busses had stopped running by this time, but the taxis were out in full swing. In fact, aside from a few private vehicles taxis were the only thing on the roads. Our driver made a left turn onto a road in a canyon of tall apartments just as two men were lighting the fuse of a small mortar round in the middle of the street on to which we turned. They simply proceeded toward the right (east side) curb as the men scurried to the west. The fuse hit the charge just as my widow came parallel with the small cardboard cylinder. The flash was blinding and the bang deafening in the small car. The projectile shot up out of sight while sparks burst out in an inverted cone from the barrel. Light from the star burst above us reflected off the glass on the canyon towering over our back seat perches.

It was like something out of I am Legend, driving down the empty roads of Xian. People were at this time inside enjoying time with their families (Lunar New Year is like our Christmas.)

The apartment that we went to is on the 28^th floor with a wonderful unobstructed god’s- eye view of the ancient city. The wall that protects all four sides of the old capital was decorated with white rope lights outlining the parapet that once protected archers from attack. The battlements stand ready to be used to defend the city once again, but for now host a display of red lanterns and other decorations along the wall walks. (Sorry, I have been reading The Once and Future King again).

The fireworks had been going on since the day I got there, but they picked up the first day of the 15 day holiday period. More impressively they picked up even more starting at about 11:00pm. Explosions were echoing across the city at about 1 audible bang every 3 seconds. At 11:45 something that I have never experienced and will never forget happened. The entire city began to light up with a rainbow of colors from every street corner. I do not think I am exaggerating at all when I say that there were fireworks launching from every street corner in the city.

I am normally not very impressed with a fireworks display. The best I had seen up to this point were in Madison on June 28 of 2003. The second best, of course were the Independence Day fireworks put on by North Riverside in 2001. The lights and sounds were of Xi’an on breathtaking. The buildings inside the city wall are all under 6 floors. So the view was only limited by the pollution which was thankfully low that night. If China were at war I would have thought that we were being bombed. The bursts of light reminded me of those I saw on television in war zones. It occurred to me several times throughout the hour long non-stop aerial display that what I perceived as large explosions are actually tiny. These explosions were from small shells when the air force uses at a minimum a 250 pound bomb. I can only imagine what goes through the head of someone in those situations. Sorry for the digression.

The fireworks were launching between the high rises. The shots generally made it over many of the shorter buildings. Since we were on the 28^th floor, we were actually at a wonderful altitude. The firework rounds actually exploded outside of our windows. On several occasions we had to move out of the way of stars that actually shot into the apartment. I wish I had brought my bullet resistant sunglasses to the party. I will have to remember that for next time.

The next morning Linda and I were jarred awake by the wonderful reverberation of (literally) thousands of firecrackers echoing in our courtyard. The detonations continued through out the day. They have become less frequent, but are not expected to ever stop.

Xin Nian Kui Le (Happy New Year)

Things I do not see

I was walking to work today hoping that it would warm up a bit more when I saw something peaking through the haze I had not seen since I was in Chicago, the sun. Part of the reason I had not seen the sun has been the cloud cover. It was raining in Hong Kong, and snowing when I got to Xian. The other part is the pollution though out China.

As you walk around the cities here you might say, “Wow, it sure is foggy here. The buildings begin to get fuzzy just half a block away, and they are completely enveloped by the fog about a kilometer away.” Well, this is not fog. It is pollution. Along with not seeing the sun in China you will rarely see planes, helicopters, clouds, stars, or blue skies.

You are probably thinking to you self, That is crazy Rick you are exaggerating. No city could be that polluted all year round with only a few “blue sky days.” Where can all of this pollution come from? In fact not only this city can be this way but many cities are this way. Planning for the Beijing Olympics, which will be occurring this summer, has included removing much of the industry from the city and moving it elsewhere in the country, some to my beautiful city of Xi’an (which was already one of the industrial capitals). Power plants in the area will be shutting down in the weeks ahead of the games to help clean the air. Millions of trees have been planted around the city of Beijing. The government was thrilled that this last year had 246 “blue sky days” beating their goal for the year by a day. China “blue sky days” are a bit different than US some of theirs would actually be “ozone action days” in Chicago where the sun’s ultra violet light activates some of the pollutants in the air and forms the haze that we see often only on the hottest of summer days.

The pollution has many sources. Similar to the North America the wind blows from west to east on most day. It picks up pollutants from Europe and now the fast developing Eastern European block countries and carries it across the continents while picking up more pollutants. A study released a couple years ago (I saw the article on the BBC News or MSNBC and don’t feel like finding the link now) found that much of the worst air pollution in the world actually comes from rural China. The farmers burn their garbage and their fields after the harvest. This releases amazing amounts of chemicals into the air. Additionally rice farming in general produces large quantities of methane gas. All of these pollutants are picked up by the winds as they proceed east. They combine with the pollution given off by the factories that supply the world with goods, and the vehicles that move those goods and the laborers that produce them. The Chinese economy has been growing at better than 10% per year for the last 15 years, that means that they double their economies size in less than 7 years(many times in less than 5 years).

If you are a science teacher you can do an environmental impact experiment (also an example of diffusion) using a large beaker of water, milk, and eye dropper. Take the milk in the eye dropper SLOWLY putting one drop of milk in the beaker, and say that “each drop of milk is one year’s pollution.” (If it is a smaller beaker say it is 10 years) Do 100 years or just 20 years and you will see the difference. Also you will see how the pollution lingers in the spot that you drop the milk. Variations include wind (simulated by stirring before you put the milk in) and emerging markets by adding drops in different areas of the beaker. I don’t know if you can do it at different altitudes (depths) but that might be fun too. Oh, and try putting it over a heat source and see if convection currents distribute it differently.

Just so everyone knows I am sorry if the format of this blog is not very good I am allowed to post my entries, but I am not allowed to view them. China blocks blogs and my BBC news L so I can not see what it looks like.

Just an update

Well, as you know I have moved in to my new apartment. Linda and I finally went out and got some stuff for it. I needed a humidifier b/c it is very dry and I have a cold. We also went to a market and got 20 or so DVD’s.( they are about $1 or 6 kuai). Guitars start at about 200 kuai and violins at 400 kuai. So I might pick up one of those and try to learn. Oh, I got a watch or 68 kuai. I did it because there are no clocks in the class rooms and I think it would be rude to be checking my mobile to see how much time is left in class. Anyway, it is shiny and seems to keep accurate time. Oh and a travel tip for anyone planning on visiting China. Do not try to catch a cab between 4:30 and 5:00 as that is shift change time and the driver just wave for you to get out of their way.

We went to the super market as well and got some food stuffs. It is kind of like a two story tightly packed Wal-Mart but with non food stuff (no automotive section that I saw). The food section is the interesting part though. It is upstairs and is at times overwhelming. It took me a while to see exactly the system that they use to organize everything. One of the reasons it took a minute to adjust is actually because it has a very large imported foods section. So I can get Pringles and some Barilla pastas and Skippy crunchy peanut butter and olive oil. I am not going to get these things very often as they are a lot more expensive than the local foods of which there are many.

The local products area is a kaleidoscope of colors. Many of the things sold are bottles with sauces and flavorings which I guess is what US super markets are like too but to me it seemed a bit overwhelming because there are simply so many of them. It is like the barbeque sauce isle time 1000.

The fruits and vegetables are in the back of the store and are for the most part very similar. There are lemons, peaches, and watermelons, apples of all sort, potatoes and onions. The carrots are HUGE and actually deep red/orange in color. There are of course many new vegetables and fruits that I do not know the name of, but I will make sure to try them and let you know if there are any good ones.

I went for my medical exam today. They took my blood and started running tests on it less than a minute after they took it. After they took blood I went and got an ultra sounds examination to check my liver and kidneys I guess. The weighed me and at the same time used sound or lasers or something to measure my height. After that I went for X-rays of my chest and finally blood pressure. All of that took about 30 minutes it was great.

Then I went and got a new cell phone for local use only, its red.

I start teaching class Friday. My first class is with the 4 to 6 year olds. Mostly it is a lot of singing and repeating phrases. A lot of my time this week has been spent observing the teachers in a variety of classes. It is a lot of fun and I am learning a lot. That is all for now I will take some pictures soon and post them to Picassa. Sorry for not being on top of things I have been busy, and our internet is intermittent at best.

Flat and job description

I have made it to my new residence in Xian. It took me a while to get the wireless hooked up and even when I did I waited to post this report till I had some pictures. The pictures had to wait till I cleaned and organized everything. As you can see it is actually a spacious flat (I have to use flat because it is easier for my students to say than apartment). The flat is has wood floors throughout except in the bath and kitchen which have tile. The walls are toupe, according to Linda.

We are on the tenth floor and luckily there is an elevator. The lights in the hall ways are sounds activated so all you do is stomp your foot when you are coming in at night.

The door opens up to a 20’ X 12’ish living room that includes a sofa; two chairs a television set and an empty 4’ long fish tank. Adjoined to the living room just as you walk in is a 10’ X 10’ish dining room. The dining room is furnished with a 4 legged glass table big enough to sit 6 and a small refrigerator and freezer combo. There is a sliding smoky glass door that leads into the kitchen which has cabinets that come up to about my mid thigh, a sink, a two burner stove, microwave, and a toaster. The cabinets are stocked with a wok and some other pots kitchen essentials. There is a tank less water heater on the wall that supplies hot water for our sink and our shower. The temperature control knob is located on it so if it is too hot or too cold we go to the kitchen to adjust the temperature for the shower. Across the room from the water heater is the gas meter. There is a credit card shaped slot in the gas meter for our prepaid gas card which we have to add credits to at the community lines supermarket which is down the street a ways. We have a similar slot for our electricity card outside our flat. I asked Lind how we know if we are getting low on either. She said, “Our electricity turns off, or our shower is cold.”

As I make my way out of the kitchen, and through the dining room I see the door to my room. The spacious bed room comes complete with a full size lumpy and hard bed, a bed side table, an ironing board, a desk and chair, a wardrobe to hold my clothes. Hanging between desk and the wardrobe is a metal bar which I use to dry my clothes after I take them out of the washing machine. The washing machine is located just off of the living room and right in front of the bath room. A tube runs through the wall and allows the washing machine to drain onto the floor of our bathroom which also happens to be the shower floor. The toilet is thankfully a western style toilet, but as in many places around the world we are not allowed to flush the toilet paper, so that goes in the rubbish bin between the toilet and the sink.

Out the bathroom, and down a short hallway to the left is Linda’s room which has a similar layout and furnishings to my own but hers cam with a slightly comfier bed and all in one weight lifting machine.

Ok on to work. The language institute that I work at is about a 20 minute walk down 3 roads. As you step out of the elevator onto the 4^th floor you will see the big glass doors that have written on them in smoky block lettering EF. The walls behind the reception desk are yellow and actually very cheery. All of the offices have modern looking glass walls (like something in Alias if you remember that TV show). The teachers are in two large offices so that we can help each other out and get to know one another. I will describe the people more at on a future date, but they are nice and welcoming. On the other side of the building there are15 class rooms most of which have 18 chairs lining the walls facing in towards the front of the classroom where there is a white board and a small desk for the teacher. There is also a computer lab with games for the students and a small library mostly with children’s books. The toilets at work are actually the Turkish toilets or squatters not the most pleasant thing, you can look them up as I will not be providing pictures.