Shaoyang University

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Celebrate the summer, dive into the sea. Celebrate the feeling, you and me. Take me to the ocean, living it supreme. Take me to the hot summer dream!

First let me get it out of the way and say that all the pictures that are posted in this update are from the last posting I made. That is, these pictures are from National Holiday and not from this week.

Ok now that that songs out of the way. Last weekend we decided to go check out the University. Actually....first we went to find out where it was. We were told it was by Number 1 Middle School. But we didn't know where Number 1 Middle School was. All we had was the directions of seriously "It's over there." Oh cool thanks. So we took off walking and what do you know it wasn't hard to find. Partly because my brain is basically Google Maps so it was easy. We passed a school. We didn't know which one it was so we kept walking and finally hit what we decided was a college. We couldn't get in because the gates were locked so we stood around for awhile and watched some chickens almost get hit by a bus and then we started back. On the way back I looked down an alley and was like "Lets go" so we went and it turns out this alley was another entrance to the college, and the gates were open!

So we walked on in. It wasn't very exciting, there weren't that many people around b/c it was a weekend, but we got some stares but everyone was too shy to talk. So we walked around the campus for awhile, I said Hi to some really hot chicks that were starring at me and they got all giggly of course. That was it. Very very boring. But we got home to an interesting e-mail from one of the girls that we e-mailed that we "met" through the guy we met on the train (Kent). Yeah, interesting how it works here. Meeting people through a very unusual string of events.

"Oh hey nice to meet you. By the way I met some girls at the University, you should e-mail them."
"Umm Ok. *days later* Hi girls I got your e-mail from some guy we met on a train. We should meet."
"Ok here's my number and my cell phone number i'm going to call you guys asap!"

This is seriously the chain of events that happened to meet these girls. It sounds like the beginning to some terrible horror movie I know, but rest assured I haven't been murdered yet....

So on Sunday the girls called us and demanded to hang out, so we're like sweet! Something to do! So we go outside and wait for them. In the mean time we talked briefly to one of the hot teachers that works here and played with her son and his friends (elementary age kids). They love us and love messing with us so it's fun. So after being AN HOUR LATE these girls show up in a taxi. There were 4 of them and 2 of me and my roommate. Two total, not two of each of us; that wouldn't make sense silly! So there's Yao-Yao (Which we called her Yo-Yo a lot which she didn't like or Baichi which means retarded) who was pretty hot, Vivian who was pretty hot, Cheng Jin who was..............and then umm another girl that name I can't remember but she looked almost Mongolian (Yes I told her this) and she was real cute and I liked to tease her.

The most amazing thing was.....they bought us gifts! Yes gifts for the random strangers they've never met that they met through a another random guy that they met who met us randomly who gave us their email on a train. Definitely wasn't expecting a gift but whatever. They bought us these really really nice tea cups which was super sweet of them and probably explains why they were like an hour late. Anyway they decided to take us to the newer "more beautiful" campus which is a lot further away. We probably won't go back to that campus A) because it has mostly dudes and B) It's too far and we don't like taking cabs. So 6 of us piled into one uncomfortable taxi and we drove to the campus. The campus was alright, it's hidden behind a huge building and a ton of baby trees and construction. But behind that is a TON of basketball courts, seriously probably about 50 courts. Tons of dudes playing basketball and stuff. We went to some courtyard thing and sat on the grass and just chilled and talked for awhile. After awhile we were gaining some attention. Foreigners, which there are none of at that campus just sitting on some grass w/ some girls. So it didn't take long before the flocks of girls came running to us. We sat there and talked to random people for a real long time. Kinda felt bad because Yao-Yao and Co went off to the side to let these random girls talk to us and we couldn't get them to come back. So eventually they said we need to head off so I broke free and went to talk to them but my roommate couldn't get away. So I sat there and watched these two guys practice breakdancing. The Mongolian girl likes hip hop so we all teased her trying to get her to go talk to the breakers but she was too embarrassed. It was fun, I liked teasing her. She was cute about it.

Then we had dinner and blah blah blah eventually went home yadda yadda yadda and then I was tired. So the NEXT day we had class and I was just chilling outside when our friend Tom (The CET ) saw me and he ran up to me to complain that I didn't call him last week for English Corner at the University. I explained it's because I was incompetent and apparently wrote his number down wrong so we called some angry Chinese guy instead of him. So he suggested we go now to English Corner and I was like wow umm ok so we just up and left. We got to the University......and you guessed it. Swarmed by girls.

English Corner is like a English Club type deal where students just talk about whatever they want and talk in English the whole time. It's actually a lot of fun. So they said they usually have about 50-100 people there so that was great. It was special tonight because we were there! We surprised everyone so they made a big event out of it. They brought out a mic and speakers and put us up on a stage to talk to us about ourselves etc. The question EVERY person asks (And I get this question in each class at least once a week) is A) Do you have a wife? B) Do you have a girlfriend. I usually respond with "Why? You want to be my girlfriend?" Which gets them all embarrassed and giggly and cute. But it was a ton of fun talking to all the eager students. I should mention that all these students are all English Majors so their English was really good. They all ask about what I think about the economy crisis in America now and all these political questions. /facepalm. I just try to avoid actually giving a real answer like "I don't know, I don't even pay attention to whats going on there now." ./shrug works I guess.

So after over an hour of getting swarmed again by school girls Tom got impatient and hungry and demanded to go to a restaurant. Donovan (My roommate! Remember these names!) was complaining about the lack of spicy food which Hunan is famous for. Which is true, we really haven't had any spicy food at all. I love spicy food, but I consider myself kinda sensitive to it so I can't eat THAT spicy of food. But the food here hasn't been bad in that sense and very very tolerable. So Tom suggested we go to this Islamic restaurant. We got there and started eating Mutton (Yes seriously mutton) which was just rolled in spices. It was pretty good, but not spicy. After saying this aloud Tom got angry and sent the food away to be caked in more spice. This time it was spicy but for like a minute. It was disappointing because it wasn't REAL spice, it was artificial spice. They cooked it terribly. Cooked the mutton then rolled it in spice. BOOOOOO! The owner of the restaurant came in and shook our hands. At least I assume he was the owner, he was a Arabic looking dude and he did speak Arabic because he yelled it at us one time when we were walking passed his restaurant. So yeah we do know the dude in passing and he knows us the same.

The week was the same as it always is. I love teaching my kids. I don't even have to teach them anything, I just have to talk to them which is great. I was flat out told by our FAO (Foreign Affairs Officer) not to teach grammar or writing, just to get them speaking. So this is great. There are some bad classes here and there but meh can't all be good. Oh and yesterday we started Chinese lessons. It was disappointing because they are teaching us Hanzi, pinyin, and speaking at the same time. My argument is that Hanzi isn't my priority. I just want to learn to speak FIRST, then later or even on my own I can be learning Hanzi for the important stuff I need to know IE food, restaurant, hotels, post office blah all that junk. So we're going to suggest that they just teach us to speak first and foremost. I don't ever see myself having to write so there's no point of learning it really.

So today I was just chilling outside of one of the buildings talking to some girls (Like i'm always doing) and all the sudden a million little junior kids come out of no where and ambush me. They are the worst kids and I don't know how Donovan teaches them. They all are yelling and screaming and crowding me and pushing books in my face and yelling Chinese and English at me and asking the same questions over and over and begging for attention omg I wanted a hand grenade. They don't know ANY English, so the little English they do know they scream over and over again. HELLO! HOW ARE YOU!? GOOD AFTERNOON! IT"S NICE TO MEET YOU! WHATS YOUR NAME? WHATS THIS IN ENGLISH!? UGH GO AWAY I'M TRYING TO PICK UP GIRLS! But there was no escaping. They had me pinned against a staircase, completely surrounded, closing in closer and closer. All yelling. I got frustrated fast. If I had to teach those kids I would probably hang myself. Then they all wanted me to sign their books. Of course, I have heard about this from my roommate, but haven't quite experienced it. So after signing 50,000 books I ran away only to be followed. These kids seriously ruin any chance I have at talking to girls. So to these kids i'm probably going to end up being all rude and stuff to them. I don't mean to be so disrespectful, but for the love of God leave me alone! Sorry, all the girls that were watching my torment from the outside were just giggling like "It's cute" ugh! SAVE ME!

So that was this week. Tomorrow we have been invited to so much crap. Two birthday parties, some classroom event thing which I don't even know what is going on I was just told to show up at this time for some reason, the 50th anniversary of Shaoyang University, skating with some of my Junior 3's that have been bothering me about it for weeks. No really, this girl told like a ton of her friends that I was going skating with them before she even told me about it. So i'm like umm what? Nah i'm busy mang. All weekend I avoided her, which luckily I was actually doing stuff. This weekend I dunno. She keeps saying her friends are going to hate her because I haven't gone skating with them and all this junk. Oh well, maybe she shouldn't have told them I was going.

Ok this is long enough. Hopefully i'll have an eventful weekend. Oh yeah. Sorry, I don't even have pictures of Yao-yao and co or of the college. I'll get those eventually. It's not my fault dangit, I really go out not realizing something interesting will happen so I don't bring my camera, then low and behold something interesting happens. Like yesterday we were going to the book store and there was a dude on the street performing with a bunch of monkeys! It just wasn't fair!

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Photos

Xi Gua!
In Yangshuo.

Students at Owen College
In order from left to right: Donovan, Kathy (Hooligan Princess), Lucy (Hooligan Queen), Xi Gua

Donovan
Donovan in Yangshuo. This is the beginning of West Street. The major tourist shopping area.

Donovan and I
By the river in Yangshuo

Donovan and I again
By the river in Yangshuo going the other way.

Bad Chenny
This picture was seriously taken just to get a sneaky pic of the hot girls behind us.

Xi Gua, Chenny, Donovan
Us by the river. Some random dude took the pic and didn't steal the camera.

Under a rock
Sleeping. Random rock formation by the river.

Girls we met in Yangshuo
Left to right: Donovan, Phoebe, Sabrina, Ally, Xi Gua. These are the girls we randomly met and spent the day with in Yangshuo.

Us and the girls again
On a rock stone bridge thing through the water.

Phoebe and I
On the river bank in Yangshuo

Gangstaaaaaaaa
People are always telling me to pose. This is my l337sauce cool guy China girl pose. Girls are always doing the peace sign here.

Comments

[Gams]

mountains
I like it that you are in so many of the pictures. BUT.....I am mainly impressed by the "mountains" in the background. They look like gigantic, mammoth, bolders in outer space. Great blog, Xi Gua.

[That Squiggly Guy]

That watch you got is huge. It's bigger than your hand. I think I can almost read the time on it from the photos.