Today was our second day teaching. This job has incredible up and downs and often within a matter of minutes and apparently, a month long vacation isn't conducive to getting us motivated to go back to work. That's enough ranting, but don't get to worried all things considered it went pretty well. Then at dinner the kitchen staff brought out French Fries! Didn't even know they could make French Fries.
The fries were pretty good. The ketchup was a little different. It was a little sweeter and is a brighter color. Perhaps they use real sugar, but that would account for the initial flavor which tasted a little life strawberry rhubarb pie filling followed by the distinct flavor of tomatoes.
The temperature got all the way up to 61 (F) today. We went for a walk after our last class and Julie was down at least two coats. She was even able to wear shoes other than her boots! Combine that with air that fell from 'hazardous' to 'unhealthy for sensitive people' and it adds up to a really good day. Just in case you were wondering the scale goes: good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive people, unhealthy, hazardous, beyond index.
The first two days back teaching has produced one outcome I wasn't expecting. I have named at least twenty students over the past two days. Let me add some background. For English class all the students pick an English name. Each student is supposed to have a name card on their desk. Well that is how it is supposed to work. In reality, some classes have English names and some have some English names. Some classes have name cards and some have some name cards. I decided to take on these discrepancies from day one. Since it was my idea, all the students who didn't have names wanted me to give them one and the Chinese English teacher agreed with them. I have a whole new respect for the parents of large families.'
It's getting late on this side of the globe so I hope everyone is doing well and have a great day.
-Ryan
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Pictures Tianjin
I think the beer makes me look small.
Friday, February 22, 2013
VPNs working again
Hello again! We've had a fun filled week with a visit to Tianjin and the Water Cube Happy Magic Water Park. We'll get you the pictures - from Tianjin, no cameras allowed in the water park.
Tianjin is China's third largest city by whatever metric they measure. It did not seem to be the third largest city. It was big, very big. The people were hard to come by and the subway seemed deserted. In all fairness, comparing any other subway we've been in to what we've become accustom to in Beijing they all seem kind of lonely. Tianjin is a quick 30 minute high speed train ride from Beijing. Remember it takes us about 2 hours to get to the train station, so we cover 20km in two hours and the other 100 or so in a quarter of that time. The train station in Tianjin seemed quite easy to manage and the subway stop took us right to the hotel. Our first issue came when we tried to take that same subway line to our first sight seeing stop, Italian Style Town, yep that's its English name.
So it turns out this subway line, Line 2, had a bit of an accident during construction in 2010 and due to the accident the line is not finished in it entirety. It is really two lines that are awaiting to be joined. We needed to get across this "unjoined" section. We managed to walk around the formerly easily manageable train station for about a half hour and found our way out and then back in and then out in the correct direction. It was a short walk along the Haihe river till we arrived in Italian Style Town.
Tianjin is the nearest port to Beijing and has proven to be a vital place to be for local and world powers over the years. This fact has resulted in an incredible about of European architecture across the city, remnants of the Italian, French, English, Russian etc. strongholds that used to be. Italian Style Town as you have probably imagined is a section of the city that appears to be dropped straight out of 19th century Italy, or so I would imagine. We found an incredible Italian restaurant, go figure. We also found a Starbucks to get out of the cold and a Bavarian beer hall that also advertised American BBQ, the beer was excellent.
Day two in Tianjin we first made it to the Radio and TV tower built on a man-made island in a lake (apparently the only of it's kind), aka big sky needle with an observatory about 250m up in the air. Then made it up towards the Golden street an Ancient Cultural street, both are really just shopping streets with Golden street having a lot more Western feel. We were headed to the Tianjin Eye (it's a big Ferris wheel that is mounted on a bridge, apparently the only of it's kind). It was very cold on our walk and about time for a late lunch.
We saw a sign on a building saying Mr. Beer and really wanted to get out of the cold. Inside we went and two ladies gave us a receipt for 120 RMB and pointed to a third lady and said, "pay". We thought about it for a second and then decided to go for it. We paid got another receipt and were led up at least five flights of stairs. At the top of the stairs was an enormous hall with a very long buffet and lots of beer. After our time at Mr. Beer we headed to the Eye. It remained very cold and we were hoping to get on the Eye in time for sunset. Luckily there were a couple of malls just across the street. Unluckily they were both closed. It appears the area had been built a little over ambitiously. The Eye was about a 30 minute ride and very nice as the smog has been worse.
The next day we went to the Five Avenues and the pictures will tell it better so you'll have to wait until we get them up. We headed back to Beijing that afternoon and took a couple of days to relax and then yesterday we headed to the water park. Half of the Water Cube has been transformed into a water park. The competition hall and warm-up area from the Olympics remains on the other side of the cube and you can pay and swim there if you are so inclined. The park had several slides we enjoyed but they had one the like I had never seen before. From the time we got there as far as we could tell it wasn't opened. Finally I got to the slide next to it and pointed, the lady shook her head in the affirmative. This particular slide has a capsule you must enter to ride. The attendant unlocked the door and let me get in. She then locked the door and pressed a button. Next I hear, "Three" (in English), "Two", "One" and the floor drops out of the capsule. What seemed like five seconds later I had dropped straight down, then slid up and back down. My brain had no idea where I was.
We are enjoying our last day of vacation and then back to work tomorrow. Hope this finds you well!
-Ryan
Tianjin is China's third largest city by whatever metric they measure. It did not seem to be the third largest city. It was big, very big. The people were hard to come by and the subway seemed deserted. In all fairness, comparing any other subway we've been in to what we've become accustom to in Beijing they all seem kind of lonely. Tianjin is a quick 30 minute high speed train ride from Beijing. Remember it takes us about 2 hours to get to the train station, so we cover 20km in two hours and the other 100 or so in a quarter of that time. The train station in Tianjin seemed quite easy to manage and the subway stop took us right to the hotel. Our first issue came when we tried to take that same subway line to our first sight seeing stop, Italian Style Town, yep that's its English name.
So it turns out this subway line, Line 2, had a bit of an accident during construction in 2010 and due to the accident the line is not finished in it entirety. It is really two lines that are awaiting to be joined. We needed to get across this "unjoined" section. We managed to walk around the formerly easily manageable train station for about a half hour and found our way out and then back in and then out in the correct direction. It was a short walk along the Haihe river till we arrived in Italian Style Town.
Tianjin is the nearest port to Beijing and has proven to be a vital place to be for local and world powers over the years. This fact has resulted in an incredible about of European architecture across the city, remnants of the Italian, French, English, Russian etc. strongholds that used to be. Italian Style Town as you have probably imagined is a section of the city that appears to be dropped straight out of 19th century Italy, or so I would imagine. We found an incredible Italian restaurant, go figure. We also found a Starbucks to get out of the cold and a Bavarian beer hall that also advertised American BBQ, the beer was excellent.
Day two in Tianjin we first made it to the Radio and TV tower built on a man-made island in a lake (apparently the only of it's kind), aka big sky needle with an observatory about 250m up in the air. Then made it up towards the Golden street an Ancient Cultural street, both are really just shopping streets with Golden street having a lot more Western feel. We were headed to the Tianjin Eye (it's a big Ferris wheel that is mounted on a bridge, apparently the only of it's kind). It was very cold on our walk and about time for a late lunch.
We saw a sign on a building saying Mr. Beer and really wanted to get out of the cold. Inside we went and two ladies gave us a receipt for 120 RMB and pointed to a third lady and said, "pay". We thought about it for a second and then decided to go for it. We paid got another receipt and were led up at least five flights of stairs. At the top of the stairs was an enormous hall with a very long buffet and lots of beer. After our time at Mr. Beer we headed to the Eye. It remained very cold and we were hoping to get on the Eye in time for sunset. Luckily there were a couple of malls just across the street. Unluckily they were both closed. It appears the area had been built a little over ambitiously. The Eye was about a 30 minute ride and very nice as the smog has been worse.
The next day we went to the Five Avenues and the pictures will tell it better so you'll have to wait until we get them up. We headed back to Beijing that afternoon and took a couple of days to relax and then yesterday we headed to the water park. Half of the Water Cube has been transformed into a water park. The competition hall and warm-up area from the Olympics remains on the other side of the cube and you can pay and swim there if you are so inclined. The park had several slides we enjoyed but they had one the like I had never seen before. From the time we got there as far as we could tell it wasn't opened. Finally I got to the slide next to it and pointed, the lady shook her head in the affirmative. This particular slide has a capsule you must enter to ride. The attendant unlocked the door and let me get in. She then locked the door and pressed a button. Next I hear, "Three" (in English), "Two", "One" and the floor drops out of the capsule. What seemed like five seconds later I had dropped straight down, then slid up and back down. My brain had no idea where I was.
We are enjoying our last day of vacation and then back to work tomorrow. Hope this finds you well!
-Ryan
Friday, February 15, 2013
Thailand revisited
We're back and it took me one whole day to get sick but don't worry after about scaring Julie to death on the bus I bounced back like a champ. Before heading forward first lets reflect on a few moments the past few weeks:
During our second week in Thailand we rented a car. I got to drive on the left for the first time and Julie realized just how well people drive in China. The roads are narrow and it often seems that the road builders just got bored and threw in some more curves. The most amazing part was the ability of those on scooters to fill every inch of open space on a road.
We have made it back and spent a great night in Beijing for Valentines day. We are planning to visit Tianjin and the water park at the Water Cube before school starts back. We'll be back in touch before long.
Hope all is well,
Ryan
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| This is Prom Thep Cape (Map) on our first sunset in Thailand. Our plane landed at 3 AM that morning. You read that right, I've never seen an airport so busy at during the wee hours of the morning. We had decided to rent a scooter (the preferred means of transport in Phuket) but didn't make it out of the parking lot before it was determined we had no business on a scooter. This proved to be crucial as I later saw a woman bandaged (think mummy) and I can see our path would have been similar to hers. There is a restaurant on the side of the hill and we ate fresh seafood as the sunset. |
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| This is the Big Buddha. This photo was taken from the back of an elephant and was not accomplished on the first attempt. |
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| Thank God Julie was sitting in the more stable position. Riding on a bench on an elephant going up and down hills gets a bit precarious. |
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| The coastline is quite mountainous and beaches can be few and far between in some areas. The terrain was amazing, the nearly naked Europeans ... ehh. |
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| This was just before sunrise outside the beach motel we briefly held down in Rawai (Link). The sunrises between two islands to the right and left of center in the picture. We would later take one of the boats you can see in the fore ground to the island just right of center. Our first week was at Coconut Paradise. The first night they put us in a Villa. The first day they offered to let us stay in the villa if we wanted to pay the difference so we moved to the beach motel. The third day they moved us to another villa for free. |
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| Julie was often the most clothed person on the beach. I was not far from second. |
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| This is Wat Chalong. Wat must mean temple. As with many places in Thailand (including the reception desk at our hotel in Patong where we stayed during week 2) you have to take your shoes off before entering. The craftsmanship is amazing so is the attention to detail given how hot it is all year. |
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| This is a tuk-tuk. We didn't ride in many but that is the bus equivalent. |
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| Our second to last day we went to Raya (or Racha) Island (Map). This was Julie's favorite beach. The water was incredible and as with most of the beaches we visited it was in a cove. Phuket lies between the Malaca Strait and the Adaman Sea and in many places the water is too rough for swimming. This beach was perfect. |
During our second week in Thailand we rented a car. I got to drive on the left for the first time and Julie realized just how well people drive in China. The roads are narrow and it often seems that the road builders just got bored and threw in some more curves. The most amazing part was the ability of those on scooters to fill every inch of open space on a road.
We have made it back and spent a great night in Beijing for Valentines day. We are planning to visit Tianjin and the water park at the Water Cube before school starts back. We'll be back in touch before long.
Hope all is well,
Ryan
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