over macau

over macau
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

This is the view from a beatiful municipal park in Macau. The view from here is interesting, but the park itself was fantastic. The temperature out there was about 1 million degrees and I was sweating like crazy.

Not complaining, but I also spent the whole day pretty much on foot. I was feeling a little woozy and slightly sunburned after walking all over Macau.

The city is definitely pretty. I had some difficulty communicating today. Cantonese is the main spoken language and a good number of signs in both Chinese and portugese. hmmm. next language?

Fast food

Fast food
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

little dumplings are one of my new staples here in Zhuhai. I discovered them one day while I was late to class. I asked casually if she had veggie ones and she had two types of them! One kind is "suan cai", a sort of spicy version of the regular cabbage ones and the "su de" green ones too. Very tasty steamed dumplings.

I find that the food here really does agree with me, but I still avoid the "eye-of-newt" sort of ingredients when I can (I still can't stand the sight of chicken feet. My God they are just to odd to look at) Intestine is not my thing either, though I was shamed into eating it the other night. For me it was just a really unpleasant texture.

I'll write more tomorrow. I am graduating from the TESOL course in the afternoon and I will be free to do my own thing more or less. I am still trying to decide how to spend my last few days in China. I'll keep you posted. I might just want to rest up a bit, but I doubt I will. I have to see at least one more city or another attraction or two.

please write me

please write me
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

It gets less believable as I go.

In Yangshuo, the woman who runs the hotel is decidedly worried about me. She won't let me go anywere by myself. She always calls the guy who works there to take me places, but it really doesn't seem necessary. She probably knows best, so I plan to be extra careful, but for pete's sake. I can't wait for the guy to come around when ever I need to go to the bathroom. It is that bad.

Anyway, I rented a bike today and went to Yueliang Shan or Moon mountain. My jaw dropped the moment I stepped out of the hotel. The hills are every bit as striking as I had imagined, but in person it is really surreal. I have never seen such insanely beautiful scenery. There are no words for it and I almost didn't feel like taking any pictures, but I took a lot.

You have normal life gong on under the shadows of these amazing rocks covered in green.

On the way to Yueliang shan, a little kid, Tong (a psuedonym for himself), stopped his bike by mine and offered to take me up the mountain. He was so cute - 11 years old it turns out, that I couldn't refuse. Besides, I was by myself and I could use someone to talk to even if he spoke no English. It was good practice. He was telling me how much I should offer for a cola and some postcards. On the way up, we met his mother selling drinks on the side of the hill. I figured, I knew his game and he was really just in it for the money... he was, of course, but he was also very friendly and personable.

What clinched it for me was that he could explain things to me in Chinese like no adult seems to be able to. The folks here don't really understand my Chinese and, for God's sake, I can't get theirs at all. They don't speak Cantonese for the most part, but their Mandarin is not at all what I am used to hearing.

I gave Tong a kuai note at the bottom of the hill after we had climbed it
and I bought some postcards from his mom. Then she asked if he could take me to the "real water cave" It seemed to have a number of names, but it was really impressive. the price was 128 yuan (kuai), but I was able to get it knocked down to 60 by using Tong's mother to buy one for me. She explained that I was to tell nobody the price I paid (the receipt was for the full amount) Then Tong and I spent a couple of hours exploring the biggest cave I have ever seen. Stunning.

After that, Tong's mom was waiting and asked if I was hungry. Of course, I was and she said she knew a place, so we we went by bike through a little village - here is where I started to worry - way, way back until we were at the edge and we pulled into a small courtyard.

She told me I didn't have to lock my bike here and it dawned on me that we were at her and Tong's place. There were some peanuts drying in her driveway and she offered me a few and started making a late lunch. No duck today, but a duck egg. and some pork mixed in with some corn. I didn't bother to ask for veggie food under the circumstances.

I am pretty sure I am going to die now of some food-borne disease, but she fried everything in oil and it was *very* hot (temperature). Then she tells me that her thing is to meet foreigners and get them to send her pictures. She seems to cherish them. She showed me so many letters she had received from people and pictures they sent over the years. It was really touching. I was amazed. She attempted to speak English at rare times. Mostly I under stood her (80%) and Tong was there to make extremely clear the important points that needed to be made. I roughly translated a few letters for her and we talked about my family and life back in America. I asked how it felt to wake up in the middle of this incredible landscape every day... did it ever get old... they both said no. They think it is beautiful and are very proud of Yuelian Shan especially.

I asked how much I owed them for lunch and all the company and she suggested 30 yuan. I didn't even haggle. 5 bucks. I went away very touched and surprised. I feel very lucky actually. Of course I could have been robbed or worse, but I feel like I have experienced some remarkable hospitality and I won't ever forget it.

200 kuai

200 kuai
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

I see this a lot. I am minding my own business and some guy picks me out of the group and thinks *I* am the pigeon. To these guys, I must look the way a caribou with the broken leg looks to a pack of wolves.

I didn't buy the pearls. I was later informed that they were probably real, but the relative quality would be impossible to guess. Still, before he let me go, he was offering me a bunch of them for 40 RMB (like 8 dollars) Hmm.

Anyway, my friends had a focus group with me because they all noticed that pan handlers and street salesmen single me out. The decided that I look like a rich American and so we dressed me a bit differently (t-shirt only, take off the shades, or at least take that sunglass strap off. And for pete's sake, stop talking to everyone!)

qingzuo

qingzuo
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

This was really a lot of fun. I walked by this stall and stopped to check out the tea they were selling and they stopped me and asked me to sit down. They didn't speak any English so I had to improvise a small conversation about tea while I sat there and had about 12 tiny cups of the stuff.

He told me he knew a guy who was an American who spoke Chinese really well... I took that as a good thing... I figure he thought that all the Chinese speaking, caucasian Americans get together once a year and share a conference room at the local Holiday Inn.

It really was a lot if fun to sit there with them, though it is quite possible that I overstayed my welcome. I suppose I could have bought some tea, but I couldn't figure out what to buy. I think I'll go back there and get a nice little teapot. He had a pretty good assortment.

My Chinese is improving, but I can't honestly say that my vocabulary is getting a lot bigger. I am a bit more fluent though and I am having an easier time understanding what is said.

English teaching is also going pretty well. I am doing one-on-one classes this week and next week I go to a small classroom setting. I am going to have to create or buy some visual aids that are colorful, visible and effective. I am expecting to be at a middle school next week.

Other plans are going to Guilin this weekend. I'm getting a little nervous about the trip since I couldn't get Tim, my roommate to come along with me. He said he wanted to go, but still hasn't confirmed and he should have purchased his ticket already if he was going. My plan is to fly to Guilin, find a place to crash and take a boat down the li river to Yangshuo. From there, I might like to climb Yueliang Shan, but lonely planet didn't make it sound too easy to get there (suggested a bicycle, which sounds a little complicated with deposits and such the like... not to mention the heat around here)

I should spend the night in Yangshuo and head back up the river the next morning by bus, perhaps stopping at one more place along the way. I'll need to be at the airport by about 7:00 PM, so I can't waste a lot of time Sunday.

I'll try to make another report before I leave, but if you don't hear from me, wish me luck. "yun chi hao."

spicy frog

spicy frog
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

Yes indeed... I ate frog. Well actually I only ate the leg of a frog. I was the only American at dinner with several of my new friends... let's see if I can remember their names:

David, Erick (or as he called himself, "Erick-a"), Angel, Mitchie, Sam
and one other person... I guess I can't remember them all.

Anyway, dinner was really spicy - really, really sweat-inducing spicy. There was one oasis of steamed green vegetables., a fish-head dish oh boy, and a duck in some sort of really good-smelling sauce. There were also some potatoes, rice and, of course, frog. The only thing I couldn't bring myself to try was the duck. One of its feet was sticking up out of the mix and it looked so pathetic that I decided to leave it alone.

Another thing that I found very interesting is the pre-meal washing of dishes. Every time I sit down to eat, I do what they do. They each get a cup of tea, and put the ends of their chopsticks in it. Then they pour the tea into their small bowl over their spoon and rinse any other dishes they have. In the end, it goes from the bowl into a dish in the center of the table.

Beer is served in a similar fashion. All the glasses are lined up and a small amount is poured into a glass. They swirl it around and pour it into the second glass and so on untill they are all rinsed out. Then the small amount of beer is boured into the dish with the previously discarded tea.

I am assuming this is done for the sake of hygene, so I am adopting the habit myself.

I have more to report, but this is all I have time for now. I am going to "gong bei" today and maybe over to Macao if I have time.

causeway bay guest house

causeway bay guest house
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

These guys ran the guest house I stayed at in Hong Kong on August 4th. They were very kind and spoke little English. They flattered me over my Chinese, but I felt like only a small part of what I intended got through. The room was incredibly small. You need to inhale to turn around, but it had hot water - which is more than I can say for the room I have in Zhuhai.

By the way, right outside this place is a starbucks, of all things. Hong Kong seems to be very busy and modern and there is a lot of English everywhere so it is farily comfortable moving around. People walk their dogs and clean up after them right on the busy sidewalks.

I had a devil of a time finding the building that night. My plane arrived late and it was nearly 3:00 AM when the bus let me off. To make matters worse, I slept on the trip and overshot my stop by one. It was tucked away in an alley with a church and a pub. I was asleep by 3:30 and I was wide awake by 8:00 AM.

That morning I found a bakery that had wonderful rolls full of some sweet red bean paste. It went perfectly with a soy latte - the last coffee I have had to date.

zhuhai bubbles

zhuhai bubbles
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

This little girl was blowing bubbles in a parking lot outside a restaurant near the school. I took the picture and I heard several voices calling out. I looked back and there was a whole falimy - 6 or seven men and women - motioning me to come over and visit with them.

I came over and sat down with them and they were thanking me about the picture in a mixture of broken English and Chinese. I was doing my best to stick to Chinese. Eventually I realized that they were offering to buy me a beer and not insisting that I buy them one for having taken the shot.

I was introduced to the mother of the girl who seemed appreciative and was offered a cigarette to smoke as well. They were so friendly and curious. I hope I didn't offend anyone by turning down the smoke ;)

my window

my window
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

I could try to describe my room, but it isn't much. I will not go into the kitchen which is a little scary, but fortunately it isn't necessary thanks to the abundant and inexpensive food around here. I am glad I remembered to bring some bedding along. I look out over a small park, which is nice. The humidity is really something, but I can't honestly say I am too uncomfortable. It is hot, but thanks to the warnings I received, it is nowhere near as hot as I was expecting. I think the rain helps to cool things down.

School is actually pretty fun (at least after one day). I am impressed with the teachers so far and I have 20 classmates all from different places. They are interesting and colorful and I am getting to know them a little bit better as we go.

We have an opportunity to eat for free at the school almost every meal, but we aren't allowed to speak Chinese there. Still, I enjoy getting to know the (English language) students and learn why they are taking the course, where they are from and get a sense of what they think of the foreigners who visit. I will probably eat breakfast and lunch there regularly and then go out for dinner after class.

deep breath

Reversi Ring-Around-The-Rosi
Originally uploaded by DogMilque.

As I compose this, I notice that there are 8 Minutes left of my birthday. It was a good one.

Tonight and two more nights at home before my flight.

Anxious and enthusiastic. What will I miss? What will be left unfinished here before I go? What will I forget? What will I bring that I do not need?

I will do my best to post here often. I am sure I will have access to the internet... but I don't know exactly where and when yet. Still mostly unknowns.

Talk to you soon.