If you are ever in China, get your haircut. I know this seems like an odd recommendation for foreign travel, but trust me. It is amazing. I will fully admit that I was planning on growing my hair out for the entire year because I had heard horror stories from people on previous Asian Terms. The Chinese hairdressers were not used to cutting non-Chinese hair so they got butchered. Katie and Alexes were both talking about how they had heard that it was a great experience. After that, I opened my mind to the idea of getting a haircut…eventually. About 24 [View Full Entry]

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This entry is a special tribute to all of my friends at work who were asking about what kind of food I would be eating in China. Are you ready for this? Last night we finally went to the night market that is just down the street from the East Gate. It is a huge hangar sized room filled with rows and rows of little grill stations surrounded by little wooden tables. Just like everything else in China, these food purveyors all seemed to have pretty much the same foods to offer. Upon entering, I noticed the wriggling bags made of [View Full Entry]

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Saturday night, we headed back to VOX to check out the live music scene. We paid the 25 kwai cover charge on a leap of faith (there was terrible screaming metal steaming down the stairs). We got upstairs and ordered a round of beers. The place was totally different than the quiet Indie-cent Thursday night. The tables that had filled the main floor were nowhere to be seen and bodies packed the area in front of the stage (which would soon become a Chinese mosh-pit with a few half naked western guys spinning like possessed tops). We found Steian and he [View Full Entry]

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After two weeks of bonding with our own little insulated group of six from Augie, we finally welcomed our 7th and final member of the gang. Alexes had to come late due to her brother’s nuptials. All of a sudden, there was a new dynamic to the group. I finally felt like we were complete; this was the set of people that I would do everything with for the next year. Then, we actually started making friends. We had gone out for dinner for Alexes’ homecoming and Dan, Nick and I were going to look for a DVD shop on our [View Full Entry]

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I finally remembered to take out my camera on a few of my trips around campus. ENJOY! [View Full Entry]

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Since none of us have to teach class on Thursdays, we decided that Wednesday night would be perfect for checking out one of the many local karaoke bars. We started the evening off with a dinner that was more eventful than delicious. It started with a mystery dish that Nick tried (and quickly spat out). In retrospect, I think it was the local dish duck neck. We ordered a chicken hot pot style meal that came complete with feet (very tricky to get any real meat) and bones bones bones. If you have ever wondered what happens to the discarded bones [View Full Entry]

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Today, I went to a Birthday party for one of my classes. I guess I should start from the beginning: On Friday, I was playing a getting to know you game with my class where I was letting them ask me any question that they wanted. This allowed me to a) hear them speak and get an idea of how proficient they are and b) get a lot of their curiosities out of the way. One of them asked me if I like parties, so I said yes. They then invited me to their class party on Sunday at 7pm, in [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday was my first day of school. I had my oral English class at 10am. I was definitely a little nervous, because I had no idea what to expect. Nick and Katie had warned me that the writing classes were less willing to participate and speak in class (since it was writing, not oral English). My fears were immediately assuaged when I walked into a room of smiling faces. They greeted me warmly and seemed very eager to learn. I had them write down their English names so I could take attendance. Most of their names were “normal” names, although I [View Full Entry]

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We have been doing a lot of exploring since we got here. Here are a few pictures to whet your appetite. I need to start taking pictures with people in them. I did the same thing one Asian Term. I started by taking a lot of pictures of the buildings and things. I had to laugh because the few pictures that I have of myself and the group are when we are eating. Go figure. [View Full Entry]

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Our apartments are in the South Building of campus. There is a big gate that is locked every night that guards the back courtyard area. We are looked after by the shirfu. He lives in the little hut in the courtyard with glass windows. The courtyard has several plastic chairs (like an old bowling alley) and an outdoor pool table (a la Drew Carey). If we are out past 11pm when they lock the gates, we can either wake up the shirfu or climb the wall. The wall in question happens to have shards of glass embedded in the top of [View Full Entry]

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