Then I asked the teacher if there was anywhere in town where we could see the lanterns. (I wish you could've heard Tai'an that night. There were so many firecrackers going off that it sounded like a war zone might have sounded....only friendlier.) She said there might be some lanterns near the Dai Temple. The Dai Temple is a temple complex and traditional pilgrammage stop on the way to Taishan(a famous mountain near here.) It is filled with beautiful gardens (many hoary Cyprus trees) and beautiful Chinese temple architecture.

P. and I soon set off for the Dai Temple. We didn't have an exact address, so we had the driver let us off at McDonalds and walked across the street to the temple.
We were amazed at what we saw! Almost immediately we saw a man with his girlfriend or wife lighting a red paper lantern with a flame so that it could fly into the night sky. I tried to take pictures, but they are hazy at best.

Inside the temple were many lanterns and light displays. My favorite was the man who appeared to be writing calligraphy. I think it might say something about Taishan. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed my adventure out.

Eleven days into my stay in China, the wind picked up here in Tai'an and the smog lifted. I was finally able to see the mountains that border the town to the North. Here is the street just outside of the campus where I live.

I have walked places in Tai'an, procured a bus pass (which makes the ticket .8 RMB instead of 1 RMB for each ride) and taken a taxi. Most taxi rides cost between 5 and 10 RMB, depending on your destination. The current exchange rate is about 6.8 RMB = 1 USD. As you can see, the taxi is a cheap mode of transportation, but the bus is almost free. Walking IS free. (: I have also ridden a beng beng (pronounced "bung bung" by the foreign teachers here.)

Today a man came to fix my light bulb. It worked before, but I had asked for a higher wattage bulb. I took a picture of his "ladder" and included it here. (UPDATE!!! I have heard that it is really quite a sight to see when he changes the bulb in the fixture above your bed!)

See, life is already mundane....

written by  Warner on February 16, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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I teach two levels of students. One level (the '07 level students) started coming to SEPIS in 2007. This level of students only comes to my class one time a week. They are my more advanced students and are in the level 2 book. They are considered intermediate level. The other group of students I teach are the '08 level students and they started the SEPIS school during the 2008-2009 academic year. This is their 2nd semester at the school and they are in the level one book and are considered beginning students. Today I did a writing exercise to try to gauge their fluency in English. I was very pleased with the results and am looking forward to working with the students during the rest of the semester.

I hope to take pictures of the students at some point soon-- but today wasn't an appropriate time. I'll let you know when, and you can contact me by email or by facebook for those at that time if you want them.

I'm exhausted...so I'm off to bed early. Ask for patience and understanding, please. Thanks.

written by  Warner on February 23, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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I have an internet friend, B., who used to work at this school. We corresponded before I came over to Tai'an and she told me many things about SEPIS and Tai'an. In her blog I read about two accidents she'd had during her 10 months here. One was while she was a passenger in a taxi (a bicycle hit the taxi) and another time she was struck by a moped (I believe.) I really thought that B. must be a clumsy person! (Sorry B., but we have never met, and I'd never been to China to see the traffic!!!)

Well, now I have! And now I don't think B. is clumsy at all!

I was crossing the street on my way to dinner the other day and looked carefully to make sure no cars, buses, taxis, beng bengs, pedestrians, mopeds, bicycles, electric bicycles, 3-wheeled trucks, etc. were coming. There were none. So I stepped out into the street. And an electric bicycle smashed into me. Luckily for me, he'd seen me about to step into his path and had slown down and was only going about 2 Miles an hour--- our collision was minor and after he righted himself he was on his way. He didn't say a thing to me about how silly I'd been to walk straight into him.

In China drivers drive on the right side of the street----except those drivers and others who feel that they would be inconvienced by this. They drive on the left side or down the middle or swerve between cars. This is where I made my mistake. I forgot to look for a motorist on the "wrong" side of the street coming the "wrong" way. Lesson learned. This is not really "wrong"--only to my way of thinking. In China it is just the "Chinese way." (:

Here is a picture of a beng beng.

Here is a picture of a girl on a beautiful, new electric bicycle.

Here is a picture of some people on their morning commute to work. The woman usually rides in back.

This is the interior of my school bus. You can see the mountains up ahead through the front windshield.

written by  Warner on February 25, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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My first week of classes finished well. I'm excited for this next week when the students turn in their first essays. The homework assignment was for them to introduce themselves to me (50+ words in length.)

This coming Thursday I begin Chinese lessons. I will have 2 hours every Thursday and Friday evening and then another 2 hours on Saturday mornings. The school is called Taishan Wai Guo Yu Xue Xiao (The Taishan Foreign Language School) and it is my understanding that they primarially teach Korean and Thai boarding students who are ages 5-18. These students parents feel that they will have a better opportunity in China after they graduate someday from a Chinese university or they have grandparents or other distant relatives who are Chinese. I have a very full school schedule and as a result I would be unable to attend the regular Chinese language courses with the school's students-- so we have arranged for me to have private tutoring with one of the school's private, certified, Chinese tutors.
UPDATE!!! ( April 9, 2009) Here is a picture of my homework assignment that was due on April 2nd, 2009. It is pretty basic, but I'm still pretty impressed with myself. I'm learning to write in Chinese because my tutor, Laoshi P. C. says that books aren't written in Pinyin, so I must learn the characters. I guess he has a point. He is quite a drill sergeant.

I was very fortunate to meet an English teacher here in Tai'an(S.) who is a close friend of the director of the school. Last week, I met with S. (from Northern Ireland), a friend of his, "David" (the director of the school) and several others from the school for a banquet to negotiate my tutoring hours and fees. This was a Mongolian-style hotpot banquet. We did not share a hotpot, but each had our own pot, and were responsible for our own cooking. This later proved disastrous for me.(: The main ingredient of the Mongolian-style hot pot is raw mutton taken from tiny sheep raised in inner Mongolia. Chefs cut the iced mutton into paper---thin slices and prepare a source containing ingredients like sesame butter, soy sauce, chili oil, chopped chives, rice wine, shrimp sauce, vinegar and parsley. Here is a pic of S. It is very hard to get a "serious" pic of him (:

My hosts ordered some shrimp and squid when they heard that I preferred seafood to other types of beef, being a vegetarian. I was very appreciative, but you should've seen my eyes pop out of my head when the shrimp showed up (raw, of course) complete with eyes, antennae, legs and shell.....I've never seen it served like this. It really made me think about the nice, neat way that food comes pre-packaged in America. At any rate, S. told me just to pop the little guys in the pot until they turned pink and then wait a minute or so more. After the woman to my right (A Chinese Friend of Stuart's who goes by the English name of "Sally") helped me take "his clothes" off, the shrimp tasted pretty good. I managed the others on my own.

The squid was another matter. I remember travelling to Spain as a 10 or 11 year old girl and refusing to eat calamari. I really wanted to try the squid at this banquet. I wanted to be brave. I didn't want to be that scared little 10 year old girl. S. told me to pop it into the pop for just a minute or so.

I sort of forgot about the squid.

About 10 minutes later I was fishing a potato out of the pot with my chopsticks and came across a piece of squid. I pulled it out and gingerly nibbled off a bite. It was a bit like trying to take a bite out of the inside of a golf ball. I am fairly sure I'd over-cooked it. I offered S. the other two pieces out of my pot. He BRAVELY took them and tried the first. He was quick to agree. An experienced squid-eater, he conceded they were a bit overdone. (Understatement of the year.)

Why am I losing weight? You may ask?? What is the secret to this amazing diet? I think the difference is that I am eating with chopsticks and I drop half of what I eat on my lap.

UPDATE! (April 9, 2009) I've now lost a total of 33 pounds.

written by  Warner on March 1, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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Ever since I saw "Forest Gump" and was AMAZED at his ping-pong skills I have wanted to see a ping pong tournament in China. I may still get a chance, but I did the next best thing and visited a ping-pong club with my friend "Minnie" and her niece so that we could watch the boys practice their ping pong skills. A club is a gym where the parents pay ping pong tutors to teach their children how to play. The first picture is Minnie's son at ping pong practice and the second pic is a coach teaching a random boy.

By the way, Minnie thought I should have a go at it--- but when she asked the club director he refused. He said it was time for the children to play. I was relieved. (: I would've been embarrassed by my skills..................
I DO hope to play someday. Perhaps just not in front of 100 young aspiring ping pong champions.

written by  Warner on March 4, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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I remember living in Italy as a foreign exchange student in college and waking up one morning after having dreamt in Italian. This was to be expected, I guess. I'd been living in Italy for about 3 months-- attending university courses taught in Italian. There were only a handful (3-4) English speakers in the town who were not tourists travelling in town to see the sights and I usually spoke in Italian. I was shocked to have the dream, though, and remember my language skills improving by leaps and bounds from that point forward. I'd finally assimilated the language on a subconscious level, I guess.

I'm not to that point.

Last night I had a dream about teaching Chinese students English. It took place in a classroom. However, I am documenting this occasion as my first "language" dream in China. I hope the next is in Chinese. Look for the next "language dream blog episode" in about 4 or 5 months. (:

This is the school building where I teach. I teach in the two towers on the left of the picture. This was a beautiful day with a clear, blue sky. This new campus is at the foot of the mountains.

UPDATE!!!! These are the students in my largest class. If they all attend, there are 69 in the class. The picture quality on these 3 photos isn't great, because they were taken with my cell phone camera. The students often take my picture with their cell phones to QQ one another. QQing, according to Wikipedia is: " the most popular free instant messaging computer program in Mainland China, and the world’s third most popular IM service [1]. The program is maintained by Tencent Holdings Limited (HKEX: 0700), owned in part by Naspers.[2] Since its entrance into Chinese households QQ quickly emerged as a modern cultural phenomenon, now being portrayed in popular culture. Aside from the chat program, QQ has also developed many subfeatures including games, pets, ringtone downloads, etc.

I think that my picture is probably all over the internet by now. If the students think that I look beautiful (pretty shirt or hat or my makeup looks nice) I am very likely to have my picture taken. These students were very happy to have their picture taken to send to my mom and dad and to post on my blog.

written by  Warner on March 9, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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On Monday I wore one of the pair of trousers with a matching blazer to work for the first time. Monday is my busy day (with 3 classes of 2 periods each.) I stay on campus on Mondays for lunch now so that I can practice my Chinese.

Between periods 2 and 3 there is a 20 minute break. I took the time to go to the bathroom. At my campus (see pictures posted today on the blog of the campus where I teach) there are squat toilets which can be difficult to manuever in. During my attempt to situate myself (: I bent forward and split the seam up the rear of the seat of my trousers!

Yep. That's right! I then had to go and teach for the rest of the day with a hole in the seat of my pants.

I left the restroom with my bag over my butt as I climbed the stairs to my class. I went to the front of the class and got on my cell phone to call for help. I called my friend, P., another foreign teacher here, to see if she could come help me. She was headed out to purchase an MP3 player and couldn't help me out, but she gave me the phone number of my academic supervisor, V.

I called V. and told her about my emergency. By this time I was in tears. I was not bawling, mind you-- just had tears running down my face. I suggested that perhaps someone could go into my apartment (on the old campus) and send me new pants by bus or taxi. She told me she would call me back in a little while. My students were giving me packets of tissues, saying, "Teacher, don't cry." "Teacher, it's ok." "Teacher, don't be sad." They were very sweet to me.

I began teaching with my back to the board, as the students still did not know what the problem was, and after 5 or 10 minutes V. called me back. Students and teachers are not allowed to receive phone calls during class, but the students knew this call was important and I had let them know I was expecting it.

V. told me that her assistant, S., would be bringing me two pair of trousers to choose from in about a half an hour. I was so relieved. Sure enough, before the bell for the break rang, S. showed up with my pants and took my over my class so I could change. When I came back to class wearing tan pants with stripes instead of grey trousers the students were surprised. There was a lot of chatter between students in the room. S. left and I explained to my students what had happened. I expected them to laugh at me. No one laughed.

I think this is the Chinese way. In China "saving face" is very important and I think my students were too embarassed FOR me to laugh AT me. If I ever have to split my pants somewhere again and I can choose which country-- I will choose China. (: The situation could have been much worse, but thanks to the Chinese people it was almost a pleasant experience--(if that could be possible.)

written by  Warner on March 18, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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Friday I went to the train station to buy the ticket for my Saturday outing. I didn't take a Chinese friend with me-- I wanted to see how I would fare on my own using the few Chinese words I know. Everyone thought I was crazy to go all the way to Jinan to buy a bowl. The Chinese I told kept trying to tell me that there are many stores here in Tai'an that sell bowls. I tried explaining to them that this was an adventure for me. No one really understood why I was going so far (55 min by train (9 rmb), 90 min by bus (22 rmb) for a ceramic bowl.

I approached the woman at the ticket counter in Tai'an to buy my ticket. I said to her, "MingTian, Tai'an Jinan yi yi-zi qing zao xie-xie." (roughly "Tomorrow Tai'an Jinan one chair Please early thank you.") She typed my request into the computer and showed me the screen. There was a 10:30 train. I repeated, "Zao qing." ("Early please.") She typed in a little more and trotted out her English for me. She showed me the 7:00am train. "No seat." She showed me the next train. "No seat." Then she showed me the 9:20 am train (indicating this was the earliest train I could get) and gestured for 10 seats. I said, "Bu, yi, yi-zi. Xie-xie." ("No, one seat, thank you.") She said in English, "Hard sleeper." I said, "Duo shao qian?" (How much money?) She gestured and said in Chinese, "9RMB." I said, "Xie-Xie." (Thank you) and gave her my money, walking away a very happy customer after having purchased my first train ticket all by myself!!!!! This is a thumbnail of the hard sleeper compartment. Just click on any thumbnail pictures to make them larger and see the details in the photos.

In Jinan I found the store with my bowl and successfuly purchased it and brought it home on the bus. I also met up with a young man from New Zealand I had met on the airplane from Beijing to Jinan when I first arrived from China. We had lunch and ate at a fantastic bakery. They make some of the best cakes I've had since I lived in Belgium. I haven't seen such sweets in China--I didn't think the Chinese liked sweets and it was a nice surprise. J., (the Kiwi) is teaching at a private English school for kiddies there. :

Today, Sunday, I went out with 5 students to buy some Chinese flashcards. They have fantastic photos of objects (one is Chinese fruits and veggies--I have never heard of many of these, one is animals, one is typical fruits and veggies, one is toys and things around the house (clothing, food, cameras, strollers, fans etc.), one is transportation words and the last is people words. I look forward to taking these with me to study on the school bus. The students also helped me purchase my new family members. I hope they live through the night!

My new family members are jin1 yu2. This means goldfish in Chinese. I have 5 of them. Their new home is the ceramic bowl from Jinan. I named them after different animals so that I have many animals as pets now.
Now I have 5 goldfish
a monkey (hou2) -- he is the white and orange fish. Maybe he is a golden monkey with the white face. This would make his name jin1si 1 hou2. But I will just call him hou2 for short.
a bird (niao3) -- he is the very smallest orange fish and he is a very, very fast swimmer
a dog (gou3) -- he is the big, fat orange fish. (I think he is a saint bernard fish.)
a turtle (gui1)-- he is the very ugly white fish. He is very fat. I named him turtle because when I was a little girl I rode a tortise at the zoo once. It was very big. He likes to swim in place and does not go very fast.
a cat (mao1) -- he is long and sleek like a cat.

So you see, Even though technically I only have 5 fish, I have 10 animals living with a me in my apartment and I am not lonely at all. Here are the fish in their beautiful ceramic bowl from Jinan.

Tonight I was invited by a Chinese woman (English name "Liz") to dinner along with the other Foreign teachers (pictures posted). She has been asked to help a hotel/restaurant across the street to translate the menu into English. I think that perhaps she was given a discount for bringing all of us to the restaurant, or maybe she is being paid for her work on the menu. She has asked for P.'s help (a teacher from CA) in translating the menu. Some of the translations are not quite accurate as Liz likes to type the words into an electronic translator and assumes they are correct. One dish on the menu was something like "Shampooed pork." We finally worked out that it was "Sauteed pork." User beware! We all ordered a dish and Liz ordered some dishes for us to share. I took a pic of 2 of the more unusual dishes.

written by  Warner on March 22, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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Here are all of the jin1 yu2 with their Chinese Characters written on cards next to their home. Someone said they can't see out of their house and that is too bad, but I think they have a lovely home with Lotus flowers and they are very lucky jin1yu2.

This morning, Wednesday morning, I woke up and went to do my fish count. I have to admit that I've never been lucky with goldfish and the first thing, I do each morning now that I am a "goldfish owner" is count the fish. Yi1, Er4, San1, Si4, Wu3. (1,2,3,4,5). Well, This morning I went to do the goldfish count. Yi1, Er4, San1, Si4. I counted again. Yi, Er4, San1, Si4. I looked for a floater. None. I looked for a sunken fish. None. I looked to see if one of the fish was abnormally large and had eaten a fish. Nope. Where was number Wu3? I looked on the floor. Yup, there he was. He wasn't a happy camper. It was too late for CPR.

I spent the day asking myself why Mao1 would jump out of his bowl. I asked some of my friends. One friend, K., thinks it is pretty funny that Mao1 (cat) is the one who jumped (rather than turtle or bird, given the inclination that cats have to jumping.) My friend L., mentioned that horses are always sticking their heads through barbed wire to look at the grass on the other side of the fence. Perhaps Mao1 was looking for bluer water?

I guess we will never know.

UPDATE!!!
Today is April 9th, 2009
This morning as I update this blog entry I am watching Gui1 (turtle) swim around his bowl. He doesn't look healthy, but he is is a fighter. All of the other fish have died. I am fairly confident at this point that I poisoned the fish by putting them in the beautiful ceramic bowl from Jinan. It must have had a glaze on it that was unhealthy for fish and one by one they have been dying. Either that, or they were diseased when I bought them. Their scales have been falling off since the second day I brought them home. Gou1 (Dog) started doing flips and turns in the water shortly before he died. Niao3 (bird) died quickly. He had lost many scales, but seemed healthy when I started a movie on the computer. When the movie finished 90 minutes later, he was gone. Yesterday,all day, Hou2 (monkey) floated lifelessly around the top of the bowl. He had no energy and he finally died in the evening. I purchased the fish a new (actually for fish!) fish bowl. When Gui1 dies, (it is inevitable, as he is sick and fuzzy) I will clean the bowl and get some healthy fish. I will try again. The lesson learned in all of this? Fish belong in fish bowls, not beautiful ceramic bowls from Jinan.

UPDATE!!!
Today is April 10th, 2009
My fishbowl is empty.

written by  Warner on March 25, 2009 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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