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!