Alright happy times!!

Allot of cool things have happened since my last self-loathing blog post. I've been to Beijing to see a rock festival, Ive drastically changed my appearance, and I've been on Chinese TV.
Lets start at the beginning. A few weeks ago 3 friends and myself ( Ricky, Lauren, & Jon) went to Beijing because we heard of this big "Moon Bear" rock festival going on. So we hop on the fast train at 9 in the morning (that is standing room only) with a case of beer and no clue what a Chinese rock festival is going to look like. The beer is for the train ride, we would be standing a in a train for a little over 3 hours, we were going to have a good time. We get to Beijing, our beers are gone, and we are ready for anything. Jon knows Beijing pretty well and he is fluent in Chinese so he is our navigator. We walk around the streets and meander through the Hutongs (very narrow alleyway types of streets chalked full of stuff to do) and finally make it to our hostel. We throw our stuff in our rooms, grab a bite, then make our way to the show. Its not an easy task to get to this venue. We had to walk to the subway station, get on one train for a few stops, get off, get on another train for about 10 stops, then hire some dude with a van to drive us about 20 minutes to the venue. We arrive and there are 3 stages put up and people everywhere. This is going to be a good time. Food, drinks, people, live music ranging from reggae to metal. We go in there and plant our flag near the main stage. They had this little area with big pillows and tables that you could hang out at. The surrounding were beautiful. High mountains everywhere, a perfect setting for what was happening. The music was great, we met allot of cool people, Chinese and fellow foreigners alike. The beautiful thing was that we hall had the same thought in mind. Lets party and rock the hell out. And that's exactly what we did. The Chinese reggae bad had to be my favorite, they would be playing their hearts out on stage with a Jamaican flag flying behind them and someone in the crowd would be holding a huge flagpole with a Chinese flag on the end. Two cultures I never expected to cross paths but I suppose if anyone was going to sing "Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights" it should be the Chinese people. It was a 3 day festival but we oly had the energy to go to 2 days. Besides the best part was over, the headliner on day 2 was none other than U.S band Mr. Big!! Come on you know who they are " Im the one who wants to be with you, deep inside I hope you feel it to!". They have been around for a long time but there main era was in the 80's. They were amazingly impressive. Ricky told me that Mr.Big has one of the greatest guitar players around right now, Paul Gilbert. I have never heard of the guy bet apparently he has played guitar with all of the best. Ricky was right by the way, that guy could wail. Again, I was impressed.
The day after the Mr. Big show we just wanted to walk around the streets and take in the sights, sounds, and for sure flavors of Beijing. We went to Tieniman square, the forbidden city, all that fun stuff but my favorite part was just walking around experiencing everything that I didnt get to see the first time. I even went to the place where the dreaded "Lisa" experience happend looking for that horrible woman but to no avail. She must have been off conning some poor sap out of his money.
There are so many more little aspects of this story that I would love to talk about but I dont feel I could convey how cool it was through words. Here is a list and if you want to hear more about it, let me know. I would be more than happy to chew your ear off dear reader.
1. Befriended a 20 year old kid from Kansas. He was in BJ (Beijing you pervs) to learn martial arts.
2. Walking around the hutongs at 2 in the morning a tad intoxicated looking for a KFC with some more Americans that we met.
3. Cramming our bodies into the subway car, my ass literally got pinched in the door. When the doors opened, I had my hand on one of the rails in the ceiling and everyone was flooding around me tryin to get off the train. My feet came off the ground from the massive wave of people movinng passed me.
4. The Chinese tourist areas were selling T-shirts with Obama's face on Mao Zedong's body. Now, if you know anything about Chinese history, that's just weird. We could talk for hours on the reasoning behind that shirt being made.
5. Kids pooping in the street and the parents cleaning it up. I guess its better than buying a diaper and creates less trash. Still pretty gross to see though.
6. Going to the "party" district of BJ and going to the restroom at one of the bars. A man was working in there and as I washed my hands he came to me and said "massagey?" and proceeded to rub me down and crack my back! What service! First tip I've ever given someone in China.
7. Homeless women using their cross-eyed kids as leverage while begging on the streets. It worked.
8. Randomly finding Jon and Lauren asleep in the middle of a field after the Mr.Big concert.

OK thats enough about the Beijing trip for now, lets move on. Recently I've decided that its time for my long hair to go. The problem was that I didn't know how to get it shipped back home for Locks of Love. Well, my mom is comming to visit soon (woo hoo!!) and she can take the hair back with her! So off it goes. For the first time in 6 years I once again have short hair and I gotta tell you, it feels amazing. I feel and look like a whole new person. Its like the hair was dragging me down (as lame as that sounds). The day after I cut it all off I had to teach high school and one of the teachers there approached me to tell me how much she liked my new hair style. I was teaching her class first and when I walked in, the kids were silent for a second and when they realized that it was me the all erupted! It was a good feeling. The asked me why I cut it and I told them about hair donation in the US and that this was the second time ive grown my hair out to donate and bla bla bla. After the class, the teacher came to me (who spoke pretty good English) and asked me more about cutting my hair and what I was going to do with it. As I was telling her, her eyes welled up with tears and I could tell that it was taking alot of work for her fight them back. She begins to explain to me that something like that is absolutly unheard of in China. That being: doing something so drastic without expecting something in return, and helping others in general. In China, your appearence is EVERYTHING and changing that so someone could have a better life just doesnt happen. The Chinese are a very selfish people. Im not saying that in a bad way, they just dont think about the people that need help. Anywho, she then tells me that she has a friend that is a TV reporter and that she talked to her and she wants to do a news story on me and my hair donation. I say sure! So on one of my days off I go to the highschool where there is a reporter and a camera man waiting to me. I bring my Chinese friend Elaine with me to let me know if they translated my message correctly. The talk to me and film me walking around the streets with a bag of hair in my hand. Then they ask me to walk into a post office like im going in to mail my hair away. The also ask me to kiss my hair as i'm walking in..... I say "no thanks, but I'll wave to it!". So that was my 15 minutes of Chinese TV fame. The kicker is that the interview was aired last night and I didn't even get to see it.

For now I must sit here and ponder the yonder......

There has been alot of reflection going on in my life lately and I honestly don't know what to make of it. I don't like who I am, to be bluntly honest. I'm judgemental, ignorant, and can just be flat out mean. On the other side of the coin I can be caring, sensitive, and bubbling over with love that I have no outlet for. The thing is, it's not like I haven't been presented with said outlet, I have been. Its just I run away or I choose to keep my good qualities to myself as if im saving them or im just being the selfish ass that I am. I can sort of trace back the reasons for my reservations in my life history, I wont bore you with those. Lets just say that things that I thought would never change - did, and has led to my constant wall and self-medication.
I suppose its all a matter of perspective and not letting life's negativities define you but having them be the positive after-matter that fills your proverbial glass to the point of being half full. I dont want to be half empty..... hell, I don't even want to be half full. I want to be "Holy shit this is an awesome glass! Have a drink out of this glass!"
Maybe I'm just in the state of emotional evolution where the reasoning behind my thought processes wont become clear until they are done growing. I mean, birds wings didn't grow overnight. I sure there was a time in avian evolution where Mr. Kestral looked at the nubs growing out of his body and thought, "what the hell are these things for?"
The love is there. It is growing, I can feel it.

Last nights dream that I gotta write about.

Ok so here goes. My dad is alive and he is in a small room with my mom, brother, and myself. My dad sits us down and tells us that he and our mom had a terminal illness and that they were going to die in the next 10 minutes. He says "Look! your mom doesn't even have a face!" then he proceeds to take the front of her face off and there is only a cavity left. He puts the wooden face replacement back on my moms head. My mom says something and I ask her how her mouth is moving, she says that she doesn't know. Then my mom and dad lay down in bed and put a white sheet over themselves as if they are going to sleep and then the pull the sheet over their faces. They are still alive, just laying there waiting. I leave the room.
I take Cooper and walk down to the river where my sick mom was said to be found. I get there and there are allot of people there as a tribute to her or something. I walk back to where I came from and Coop almost gets hit by a couple cars. Next thing I know I walk onto a houseboat. Billy D. Williams is there and tells me that he is sorry to hear about my parents. All of a sudden a hoard of zombies starts coming onto the boat. They aren't the really tough zombies, these were pretty easily subdued. I hit them, push them overboard, slam doors on them, and make my way off the boat when I realize that I'm late for high school. I get on my bike and ride it to my hometown high school. In the back of my mind I know that I haven't been going to any of my classes so I'm probably failing them. I sit with the principal and he says that my grades aren't looking too good and that a 30 year old junior in high school should have a stronger work ethic. I ask him why my old diploma didn't work and why I had to go through all of this over again and he says " Oh yeah, your old diploma does work! My bad".
After that I go to buy a certain illegal plant from a certain friend (who will remain nameless) and he is selling it out of a candy stand at a market. All of the buds are on skewers like kabaabs about to be put into a grill. He tells me the prices and I think they are too much so I walk away.

Hospital visit/ "Tomb Sweeping" festival

So this past week in China has been the "Tomb Sweeping" festival. I don't know too much about this festival besides it is to honor people that died in a certain battle that took place around the time of WWII. It is also a time to remember loved ones who have died. There is a "mountain"(large hill) close by where the soldiers of this battle were buried and the people of Jinzhou would walk up there and pay their respects. The would also do this by burning fake paper money in the streets to send to their passed on loved ones in the next life. Its a really amazing site, walking down a main street and seeing 15-30 fires going on. Ricky (new Irish teacher/ roomie) and I bought some of the fake money and along with Neve we burned some. I went off on my own to have a personal money burn and sent some cash to Zac and my dad. Im sure they are both very thirsty and could use a cold one. This festival also gave us a slight break in our teaching schedule. It wasn't a day off or anything but one of our 10 hour ultra busy days was turned into a 6 hour pretty boring day. That was a nice change. I have been feeling like I have been getting sick for about a week now and on Sunday I realized that I really was. It felt like I had jello in my lungs and every time I breathed it sounded like you were slurping the last bit if soda out of a cup. Every time I coughed if felt like my lungs were being ripped apart. I have never felt this before, especially without a sore throat or anything else really wrong with me besides a drippy nose. I called my Chinese teacher Jessie and asked her to take me to the hospital, because there is no way I would have been able to deal with that on my own. We went and it was a very odd experience. People everywhere, lots of them smoking(inside the building). We went to one counter to fill out a piece of paper, then went to another counter to hand them the piece of paper we just filled out. I gave them 8 yuan registration fee and they sent us upstairs to the respiratory medicine lady's room. I walked in to her room which was about the size of a good sized bathroom and there she was sitting in her coat and mask behind a desk. She asks questions and Jessie translates for us. She puts a stethoscope to my chest and listens to me breath. I tell Jessie to tell her that there has been some blood and green stuff in what I've been coughing up and she recommends a CT scan. I say okay. We go back downstairs to the original counter with the order for a CT scan and I pay them 330 yuan fee for the CT (about 50 USD). We walk around and find the signs for x-ray/CT and find where I'm supposed to be. I gotta throw in that during this whole ordeal I am being stared at by literally every single person in this hospital. I mean people even tap their friends on the shoulder and point at me. "Look! A foreigner!" Ok, lets continue. We eventually find the area where they CT scans take place and the doors look like the sliding ones that Leatherface pops out of. The nurse says that here is a person ahead of me but when she looks up to see that I am a foreigner she puts me at the front of the line and I walk on in. I get scanned and go back to the waiting area. I sit beside a nice lady who is an English teacher at one of the local middle schools and she says that CT results take 2 hours. I've been sitting for one minute and they tell Jessie that I can see my results now. Jessie says that the hospital wants to take good care of their foreign clients. Pretty awesome. So I get up, pass the lady who has just arrived for a scan who's face is laying in a pool of blood, swallow the vomit that just came up, and go to the room where they look at the scan results. The woman in there says that everything looks normal and they send us back upstairs to the respiratory lady. The Dr. gives me a prescription for an anti-biotic and also some bottles of this TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) liquid (a bunch of herbs mixed together) that is supposed to clear out my lungs of all the gunk in there. It was an amazing cough suppressant by the way. So here I am, about 50% better. I am not teaching high school today because moving around and yelling for 4 hours will for sure exacerbate my health situation. So I got another Irish roommate last week and his name is Ricky. He is 23 and seems like a pretty cool guy so far. Not to much to report thus far. All is well

You've been CrewsiFreed

I am starting to really view this place as home. I look around me and watch the people and think to myself, this is where I live now, this is my home. I'm not really surprised by anything anymore which is weird because there is some really weird shit that goes on here sometimes. The way of life here is so different but at the same time there is a deep feeling of familiarity that calms me. Do I want to permanantly live here? No, probably not. Although the thought has crossed my mind on more than one occasion. I mean, I make a more money than I need here (chinese money) which makes it very easy to save some for when I return stateside, I have an amazing apartment thats free, everything is dirt cheap, and I feel like a celebrity everywhere I go. Strangers come up to me and ask for pictures just because I'm a white guy. It feels pretty good, I gotta say. None of this could ever take me away from my family and loved ones. They are all I have and I need to protect that. Yesterday was Neve's 28th birthday and we threw a party. It was a good time and if finally gave Mike and I a chance to play the music we have been practicing for people. Have I mentioned that before? British Mike and I get together once a week and he plays guitar and I sing. We have different tastes in music so its nice to hear some new stuff and have someone listen to what I like. Mike is officially a bluegrass and a Grateful Dead fan. OK back to the party. About 15-20 people showed up and Mike and I were a little nervous. British Jon and Gabe sat in with us too. Jon played the guitar and Gabe played a drum type instrument. We played 3 songs: Tangled up in blue, my my hey hey, and Hallelujah. It went really well! I was very happy with the way we sounded and the reaction we got from everyone. Oh yea, we have figured out a band name too. Mike's last name is Crewe and of course mine is Freed so we named ourselves "CrewsiFreed". I think that's pretty damn funny. My Chinese is progressing well, I have actually had conversations with people in Chinese. They were as basic as you could get but it still felt good to be able to communicate. I've even negotiated prices! I have also started to learn how to read and write Chinese. Its alot of fun actually, their characters are complex and beautiful. I can see how it is an artform. I just want to be able to walk around the streets and tell what all the shops are. Whelp today is the most beautiful day of the year so far so Im going to go play my home made disc golf course!

Dinner Time!

Last night after work a few of us decided to try out this Korean restaurant down the street from the school. It was a Monday night, which is a Friday night for us since our busiest days are Saturday and Sunday. We had just planned on having a nice meal then going home. Fist the doors are opened for us by these pretty, traditionally dressed Korean waitresses and they show us to our seats. Their eyes glued on us due to the fact that we are westerners (except one of us who was Chinese). We sit down and there are 3 waitresses around our table, one pouring our tea, one taking our order, and one basically just staring.
There is a stage area in the back of the restaurant and we are informed that there will be live entertainment in about an hour. Sweet, I've had a need for live music lately, I don't care what it is. We order our food" sushi roll thing, kimchi (my fav), a plate of fungus, shrimp, and leeks, a rice bowl with vegis and a fried egg on top, and also some hard boiled eggs that have been wrapped in pork and pan fried. We also have about 5 beers. (Well, Mike and I have 5 beers between us) We eat, drink, and have good conversation. The waitresses putting food on our plates for us and swooping in to fill our glasses with beer or tea if they are getting close to being empty. We see about 5 or 6 of the waitresses go into a room by the stage and one of the cooks comes out and sits behind the drum set. The waitresses come back out with these big traditional Korean gowns on. One sits behind the keyboard and the other sits in a chair beside the first one. The girl sitting in the 3rd chair is sitting there very properly with her hands on her lap waiting for the music to begin. When its time she reaches over to her right and picks up this electric bass that has to be bigger than she was and puts it in her lap. The music starts slow then the cook/drummer puts down this beat and the bass girl lays down this lick that made Mike and I simultaneously turn to each other with out mouths open and eyebrows raised. This girl was amazing! Her fingers were all over the place! She even did a little slappa da bass.
Later on 3 girls came out also wearing Korean gowns and they sang a song together then all came out individually and sang a song. Some of them coming out to the tables to sing to the people sitting there. After the first wave of singing a dancer came out and hopped around there for a while and then the singers came back out. The each did one more song and one group song then went back into the room from which they came. The exited the room back in their waitress garb and went back to work. The room was exactly the way it was 45 minutes prior and no one seemed to be acting as if we just watched an awesome performance with a bass player that that played like she was taught by Vic Wooten himself. 5 minutes after the show we all look at each other and Mike asked "Did that just happen, or are we all having a group hallucination?" Well it happened and I have the pictures to prove it! We sat there for a while after and talked. When the bill was requested it came to 155 Yuan which is roughly 25 dollars USD. It was definitely a pleasant surprise and I'm glad we chose that restaurant. I'm going back!

Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo.......

Hello all once again from the land of youngsters (boys) with perms and live turtles for sale in the supermarket. The sun is finally doing its job (besides the whole light thing, thanks for that Mr. sun) and you don't have to dress like Randy from Chistmas Story to go outside anymore. Everything is running as smoothly as it can. I bought a bike recently, which I am very excited about. I havent thought of a name for her yet but I figure she will earn one in due time. I thought about the money I was spending taking a taxi everywhere and realized that if I only take a taxi to and from work until I leave I will spend a little under 2000 yuan. So I bought a bike for 550. Its a brand new Giant (brand), it has a basket, a bell, and a rear rack. Not too bad for 83 USD. Its liberating riding that thing around, I love it! Oh yea I still get stared at but I don't care, all is well. I just need to be careful because the driving here is insane. Its every man for themselves. I wear my headphones (probably a bad idea) and sing out load where ever I go. Its a great feeling.
I got a new roomate, her name is Neve and she is from Ireland. She is really nice and easy to get along with. And she likes Cooper which is a good thing. Its fun to see Neve experience everything in Jinzhou for the first time because I can see what I must have looked like seeing all of these new things. She is dealing with everything very well.
Coop is doing great. He turned 4 since I've last written and is enjoying the warm weather just as much as I am. I found a little area where I can let him run off-leash, the thing is I have to act like a hockey goalie the whole time to make sure he doesn't go where he shouldn't. Its scary having him run around on his own. The Chinese throw alot of things on the ground and Cooper loves ground scores. Its hard to watch every move he makes. I look away one time and come back to find him gnawing on a fish head. He is still his happy self though, as usual. The other morning I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I turned the light on and there was Cooper, standing in the middle of the bathroom staring at me. That was just odd, it was 3 in the morning and he was just standing in the bathroom. What a weirdo.
My Chinese is improving and I am becomming more and more confident in myself. Im not afraid to go places anymore due to lack of communication skills. Its a good feeling really. The walls are comming down!
I had some odd dreams last night that really should be documented. One is pretty vague, I was secretely trying to steal a horse from one guys yard, and successfully relocate it to another guys yard 3 houses down. Ok that was one part of it.
The next dream I remember I am sitting in a crowd looking at a group of police officers (some of the people are famous people) and then being asked to join them. The said to me " We are just like Frank Sinatra but without the LSD". Cooper and I joined them in their group then a platform raised from the ground and lifted us all into the air. And thats it. I love dreaming.

Admit that the waters around you have grown....

The times are a-chagin. The "honeymoon" phase has ended, I am teaching with a full schedule and pretty damn bored to be blunt. A few teacher are leaving due to their contract being up and their workload has to be taken by someone..... guess who? Its actually not that bad, we have 2 new teacher arriving soon (one to be my roommate) and they will help take the load off. That is if all goes well with them. I hear that its not uncommon for teachers to arrive in Jinzhou then tuck tail and run. I've heard of one lady who didn't even get out of the airport before she basically bought her outgoing ticket. I keep telling myself that its what I came to do and it will be over before I know it. I can almost say for a fact because I've been in this position before (being unhappy in a small aspect but letting in fester in me) that I will look back on this experience when I am old and grey (thanks mom) and pat myself on the back. All of the negative emotions that I feel will disappear because if there is anything I have learned its that if you build your foundation with Mr. Yuck stickers then your house is definitely going to poison you.
How was that house/foundation metaphore? Too much? Kinda lame? It got the point across didn't it?
Anywho, Its starting to warm up here and that is going to help allot. I've been hanging out in my apartment all the time because its really cold here and activities outside just aren't happening. It even got warm enough a few weeks ago for me to create a few disc golf holes along the Jinzhou river. I only made 4 because space is limited but hey, beggars can't be choosers! I even made a hole where you have to throw to an island over where 2 rivers converge. Its a pretty sweet hole! I'm proud if it.
Oh yea, I almost stole a dog from its owner last week! The only reason I didn't is because I am in another country and I'm not sure of the potential consequences I could face. I do know that if I were stateside that dog would have been mine, well, maybe not mine but definitely not that guys! Here's the story: I was walking Cooper and there was another man walking is dog through the complex. It was a beautiful golden retriever that couldn't have been older than 6 months. The golden was off leash and he came up to Coop and the sniffing begun. Cooper had been around a golden for the majority of his life so he and this dog were instant friends. Cooper and the dog were wrestleing and the owner walked up to me and tried to make small talk. I did my best Chinese but needless to say the conversation wasn't very long. This goes on for about 15 minutes and I decided that it was time to move in with our walk. We begin walking and the golden follows wanting to play some more, his owner following behind trying to wrangle the pooch. I stop cooper and have him sit so I could grab the golden for his owner. The owner of the golden walks up and grabs the dog by the side of the face (including the ear) and drags him away. The whole time the owner was holding the dogs leash which was a basically a leather strap and then he starts beating the dog with this leash. I'm not talking about a little whippen here I'm talking about full swings, his arm went all the way back. He hit is dog at least 10 times and the dog is crying. I am yelling at him "mei shi" "mei shi"!!!! Which means "its ok"!!! He didn't listen to me. The golden eventually got away and ran back over too Cooper and me. I tell the dog that I'm sorry and that if he doesn't get back to his owner is was going to get his ass beat again. He continues to follow us. We are now walking near a dried up creek bed and the man picks up rocks the size of a fist and begins throwing them at this dog as hard as he can. Im getting pissed "pengyou ting""Mei shi "!! Which means "Friend, stop!" "its ok"!!! and then I switch to English "DUDE STOP IT!!". Again, he didn't listen. One of the rocks land on the poor dogs rear leg and he runs away limping. Cooper and I bolt around the building to get away because I cant watch this anymore. The dog finds us one more time and I can see that the playfulness has left his face, this was a "protect me" face. I get to the door of my apartment and its me, coop, and this dog sitting there, I open the door and the dog tries to forces himself inside to get away. I have no choice but to push him back and leave him outside. It broke my heart. If that had happened in the states that dog would have been scooped up on the first leash whippen then I would have turned that leash on the owner. That is unacceptable.
Well that was a depressing story! I just wanted to point out the cultural differences.
Here is a short list of things I've seen lately:
1. A woman cutting in front of me when im a half a foot away from the cab door.
2. A woman and her son standing on the steps of a shop, the woman is holding the boys penis while he pees onto the sidewalk.
3. Professional grade fireworks being shot right beside a highrise building.
4. Instead of mowing the grass, a man just burns it

CNY&F Chinese New Year and Freed

This week has been Chinese New Year. The biggest days were the 2nd (new years eve) and the 3rd (new years day) but the celebration meter was on 11 for the vast majority of the week. The red lanterns were put up and the fireworks vendors assumed their positions on the streets. After a long weekend at work I walked out of there with 7 days off, now that's how to ring in a new year! That night a group of us went to a restaurant that specialized in Sichuan food, which is a province in China known for their spicy cuisine. At one time it I'm told that being able to tolerate Sichuan food was a sign of your masculinity. Anywho, its delicious, we all got about 6 or 7 dishes to share and a bunch of beers. We all so bought a bottle of Baijiu, which is a traditional Chinese liquor. Its ok I guess, I'm not a huge fan, it sort of has a black liquorish flavor to it. Boy does it do the job though! After the plates are empty and the bottle is kicked we decide to go to a KTV which is a karaoke joint. KTV's are extremely popular around here, there are literally streets that are just full of different KTVs. You walk in and negotiate with the employees what you want and they accommodate. Its not like karaoke that we are used to, You have your own room with a flat screen, your own bathroom, couches, games, and a karaoke computer. We talked the guy into letting us have the room for 3 hours with 15 beers for 200 yuan (30 USD). It was interesting actually, right when we walked into the place everyone came over to us and wanted to have their pictures taken with us. We even had someone knock on our door so she could have her picture taken with American Mike and me.
So we hung out in the KTV and sang some songs. I was surprised that they even had western songs on there but they had a few. I sang "Do you really want to hurt me" by culture club, "Sussudio" by Genesis and a few others. American Mike is a sucker for traditional christmas music for some reason and sang jingle bells and a few others. It was so funny I took a video of it, he was rockin jingle bells in early February. I guess you had to see it for yourself. After a few hours I was about karaoke'd out so I hit the road. Pretty fun way to start my holiday.
So it's now the 2nd, which is NYE and American Mike invites me to his place because his wife(Anna) is making dinner and she is a great cook. The streets of Jinzhou is a pretty amazing place during this time of the year. Fireworks everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. Ones that make our 4th of July look like we are a bunch of pansies. The best part is, you can buy top of the line fireworks on the freaking street corner! So that means everyone and their mother are setting off these huge fireworks at the same time! After a delicious dinner, a couple of friends come over to Mike's with some fireworks and I ask him how much he payed and when he told me, my jaw dropped. He bought an arms length 4 inch thick log of firecrackers for 20 yuan......3 USD. I said "ok lets go, take me to where you go them" . So, my friend (British Jon) and I hop in his scooter and find the nearest fireworks stand. We, find one and Jon (who is fluent in chinese) negotiates a pretty sweet deal for me. I spend 135 yuan ( 20USD) for my pile and they give it to me in a trash bag! These aren't little sparklers or fountains dear readers, these go boom. The Chinese do not mess around when it comes to their fireworks. We went back to Mike and Anna's and had some drinks and waited for midnight to come around. We went out to the patio of Mike's which gave us a pretty sweet view of the city from all angles. We set off our fireworks and had a good ol time. Once midnight hits the city explodes, the sky is totally lit up. Everywhere you look are fireworks, its intense. I took allot of videos. I ignored my pile of boombooms and just stared into the sky turning in a circle. It was amazing. Its very hard to describe. I cant imagine being in a bigger city with millions of more people in it. After midnight the fireworks slowed down a little but were far from being over, hell they still are and its 3 days later. I have been woken up every morning between 6 and 8 for the past week by someone setting off fireworks. If anyone has a bucket list I strongly recommend putting "experience a Chinese New Year" on that list. You wont regret it!

New stories including a trip the Bei of Jings.

My apologies for the current lag in my posts, I haven't really been "feeling" it although there have been things happen that I know I should write about. Let me try to remember them....
These happening aren't in any particular order, I'm just writing them as I remember them. It has been 3 months since Ive arrived here and it feels like Ive been here for four times that long. I have continued to take Chinese lessons and I've fallen into a routine at work. I've even had a very special lady visit me from the states. I will re-name her Molly because I don't know how she feels about me writing about her. Molly is very special to me, we have known each other since the 8th grade and got reacquainted while I was at home waiting to leave for China. She came to visit me and I took some much deserved time off of work. Talking with some friends here, they decided it would be good for us to take a trip to Beijing to see the sights and to just get out of Jinzhou for a bit. They(my friends) basically planned the entire trip for us: train tickets, hotel, tour guide, and all we had to do is show up at the right place at the right time. It was pretty sweet of them. I was told that in Beijing that you can find whatever western food you want, so that's what we did. We were going to be eating tons of Chinese food in Jinzhou so we went on a mission to find western food that we could find nowhere else but there. Beijing is huge by the way, 20 million people. We ate Indian food (still Asian I know but not Chinese), pasta, burgers, poutine (french fries with gravy, Canadian staple), and of course pizza. We went to a pizza hut which doesn't sound too fun does it? Well, here, Pizza Huts are a fancy sit down restaurant, its kinda weird in a good way.
Anywho, to the good stuff. My friends arraigned a tour service for us to see the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs are the grave sites for the emperors during the Ming dynasty. There are 13 of them but only 1 or 2 are open to the public. That place was really cool, there were a couple of temple style buildings and behind the last one was a huge mound that actually had the body/bodies in it. It hasn't been excavated yet. There was even a well area that was said to be dedicated to the concubines to the emperor. They said that the emperor had thousands of concubines and those who didn't bare him a son were sacrificed once the emperor died. They said there were hundreds.
After the Ming Tombs they took us to a jade carving facility where we tourists could spend some money if we felt like it or just look around. Some of the jade carvings there were amazing. I couldn't imagine the pressure a carver would be under. If they made a mistake, the project would be ruined and the jade wouldn't nearly be as valuable.
After that we had lunch then got back on the minibus to head to an area of the Great Wall. I don't remember exactly what section we were on but it was the highest section. Molly and I walked around for 2 hours and loved every second. It was amazing up there. You could see the wall meandering off the mountain sides in both directions. We allot of walking and there were allot of steps, some were extremely steep. At times the next step in front of you would be as high as your knees so you would have to hop up onto it. Before we got there the tour guide said "remember this was was made for the military, not for tourists." . It was a hell of a workout and the view was spectacular. Needless to say, we were spent by the end of the day. The even took us to a tea house where we got to try some amazing Chinese tea, made by people that really knew what they were doing. The didn't just teabag (hehe) some hot water and hand it over. There was even a kind if tea that looked like a ball about the size of a good size gumball. Once you put it into the hot water it would hydrate and an amazing flower would be floating in your tea. The flower was the tea. Pretty cool stuff. So after that it was time to end the tour and Molly and I were having out pizza craving. We asked the tour guides to drop us off and the closest pizza hut to our hotel. They obliged and dropped us off at this huge shopping mall and said that the Hut was inside. We ate some pizza at the fancy pizza hut and on our way out of the mall a nicely dressed Chinese lady stopped Molly and asked if she spoke English. We both stopped and talked with her for a minute, she seemed very pleasant. She then asked if we would like to have a cup of tea with her so she can practice her English and talk to us about our country. With a tad of apprehension we said "ok" and she took us down the street to this tea house that she knew about. We walked into a little store and the tea house was in the back of it, upstairs. We go upstairs and she puts us into this private room, about the size of a good sized bathroom. In this room is a table and a young lady to make the tea for us. The nicely dressed woman says that we can call her Lisa. Lisa says that she is a traditional Chinese woman and it is custom for the man to pay for the first cup of tea. I think "what the hell?" its a cup of tea. I say ok. She asks us to pick 4 teas that we want to taste from these jars to see which one we want to have a cup of. We pick 4 and the tea maker makes us a thimble sized tasting portion, all the while Lisa is telling us how she is in school getting her masters in fashion design. After we taste a few Lisa pulls out the menu and shows us that the tea was 50 yuan per taste, per thimble basically. I say "wow that's allot, we are not interested in anymore" I finally see whats happening here, its a Beijing scam. I tell her that we would like to leave and she says "ok, its a shame you have to leave so soon but at least we have this memory, ill just get the bill". She leaves the room and comes back with the bill. (Which was fishy in itself because the bill is always brought to you, you never go get it.) She slides it over in front of me and it says that I owe 700 yuan. (106 USD) I just laugh and say that I am not paying for this. She begins the argument civilly: "you said you would pay when I asked" I said "yea and after I saw your prices I retracted my offer, do you know what retracted means?" We went back and forth for a good 30 minutes. She said "fine, ill pay half". I still didn't back down. I look at Molly and her eyes are the size of dinner plates, she is scared. We are in this tiny room with a lady who is trying to take our money. Lisa comes back with "ok 300 and you can go". I tell her "I know what you are doing and I feel very taken advantage of, im not paying you!" Lisa starts yelling "How are you going to do this? In front of her? (pointing to Molly) Think about how this will make you look!!" I tell her that I am not worried about that in any way and that we would like to leave. Molly and I both stand up and Lisa blocks the door and pushes me back. She says "Fine! 200 and you can go!". I say "no way, ill give you a hundred for the tea that we drank and we are leaving". I hand her a hundered dollar bill and she says "no, 150!!" She is still blocking the door. I tell her no, she says "fine, we will call the police! Call the police!!". I am 98% sure that she is bluffing, the whole "call the police" thing is her last card to play. I say screw it and throw a fifty on the table, when Lisa goes to pick it up Molly and I move around her and bolt out the door. As we are leaving she is cursing us out like mad "F*ck you you piece of sh*t!! F*ck you!!". We get back out to the street and find the nearest cab to take us back to our hotel. Whew! That was an experience! Other than that the trip was awesome. Our hotel was really close to these 2 ancient towers and in between them were these men with these birds that would fetch. It was pretty amazing, the bird would be perched on his hand or his shoulder and he had a white marble sided bead. He would throw the bead about 20 or so feet in the air and the bird would fly up and catch it. How that bird could see a white marble in the sky on a coudy day is beyond me but it was pretty amazing. Our last night there we found a Canadian joint, we just wanted some beers and we walked in there was a big screen TV playing Anchorman and the draft beers were 10 yuan each. This is the place! We sat there and watched 3 movies while the beer was a flowin. Great way to end the trip.