In order to promote speaking English, I am doing one-on-one interview quizzes with all 200 of my 2nensei this month. It has actually gone better than I expected, so that was a pleasant surprise. Here are some of the amusing questions/answers I have gotten so far:
“Which do you like better, Japanese women or American women?”
“What do you think of Ms. Yamada?” (my 24 year-old cute female co-teacher)
“Do you like Cindy?” I was asked this TWICE! Damn kids!
“Do you play sex?” (inevitable)
“How long have you been dating your girlfriend?” (I obviously am up-ing her English level in this quote)
“How many girlfriends do you have?”
Me: Do you have a girlfriend?
Popular boy: No comment!
While I am writing about my students, in 3nensei classes we were writing about “Naninani is one of the naninani which I like.” For example, “Harry Potter is one of the books which I like.” They had to use that grammar point for anything they liked, then write two more sentences for each one. Here was one of them:
Banana is one of the fruits which I like. I have eaten it many times. I want to eat it again some day.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Thursday, February 01, 2007
China, Part Three: Guilin
Okay, I am finally going to continue my China trip journal before I forget everything! So, as I said before, we FINALLY landed in Guilin and met Ping, our tour guide there. However, she was WAY too ADD and excited to ever go through such formalities as introducing herself, so we were never completely sure of her name! More on that later.
On the way to the hotel from the airport, Ping told us ALL kinds of stuff about Guilin, and we FINALLY knew the answers to a Chinese person’s pop quizzes! Yay! Our tours were paying off! Ping is a minority in China, which is pretty rare, considering only 8% of Chinese people are not of Han ethnicity. In this 8%, there are 56 different minorities! On the way to the hotel we learned the customs of a few of the “major” minorities, and they were really interesting. They also helped us with our minority show we went to later on!
We got to the hotel very late and were EXHAUSTED. It was a nice hotel, as it was on a lake with lots of nature around it. Then again, that shouldn’t be too surprising, since Guilin is like the land of nature! Oh, for those who don’t know anything about Guilin, I will tell you random facts! Guilin is in the south of China. It has a population of about 670,000 people. “Guilin” means “forest of Sweet Osmanthus,” which is a type of tree that is ALL OVER Guilin, apparently, but we weren’t there at the right time to see them in bloom. Guilin is incredibly famous for their nature. It has been seen in countless paintings and films. The people there are soooooooooo much different from people in the big cities, as Cindy and I are convinced they are all high the whole time! It totally reminded me of Eugene! Everyone is SO laidback and doesn’t care about anything! It is great! It was really relaxing to be around people like that! Like, people just chill in the park all day long and stuff!
Anyway, we were SUPPOSED to get there in the early afternoon that day, so we were worried that we weren’t going to have enough time to do everything on our itinerary. Fortunately, however, Guilin is teeny and EVERYTHING is like five minutes away! It was crazy! There is also not that much to do, so we were able to cram everything into a day and a not-even-half!
Day 7
We got up early on our first real day in Guilin, had breakfast, then met with Ping and our cool driver (I don’t know why I think our drivers are cool, we never talk to them! But they are!) to drive to the port (is that what you call it?) to go on our river cruise! The Li River is famous, as it is a big river in China and blah blah. Anyway, we were lucky with our timing, as there is barely any water in the river in the winter, let alone this scary global warming winter! So we were there like right before they cut the cruise short for the winter (from five hours to like one or so). Five hours sounds like the LONGEST river cruise in the world, but it was just relaxing and whatever, so the time kinda flew by! Cindy and I were in the rich gaijin area of the boat, as we had our own reserved room at the top that was all nice and warm and had a great view! All of the other cheap bastards were down below and they had to stand on the top in the cold to see everything! Sad! Anyway, in the rich gaijin area was me and Cindy, this random white guy by himself, and the MOST INTRIGUING FAMILY EVER. Oh, and our tour guides, who have the easiest job in the world (they just sat there and talked and enjoyed the heat!).
Anyway, most intriguing family ever! So they were Asian-Europeans, which is always interesting to me because that is way more interesting than Asian-Americans! Haha. Well, the parents were from China, I believe? They lived in Amsterdam, though, and they were there with their daughter and her boyfriend, who is also Asian. Um, they all spoke literally like at LEAST five languages! Like, they would just switch between languages the whole time, it was so crazy! And they were also rich as shit, you could just tell by looking at them! Anyway, I guess you kinda had to be there, but Cindy and I would just sit there and listen in and be amazed by them. I want to spend a day with them and just watch them! Hahaha.
Anyway, Cindy and I were sneaky and had to find a way to find Ping’s name out without asking her, as that would be embarrassing. So Cindy asked her for an emergency contact card in case we needed to call her if we got lost or something, hehe. So, we THINK her name is Ping! :)
The boat cruise was really nice! The area was beautiful, as it was just hills (or “mountains,” depending on your definition of mountains, I guess) for like hours! They were so pretty. And it was really green and relaxing! We would walk outside for pictures, then go back in our great heated room and sit down and relax :) There may have been some river napping involved! Hehe.
During our cruise, we realized that the people of Guilin’s favorite hobby is to stare at rocks and figure out what they look like. In our stay in Guilin we saw a camel rock, a Buddha rock, a thumbs up rock, horses on the rocks, EVERYTHING! Like, they seriously just decided, “Hey, this rock looks like a naninani!” It was amusing.
We also realized that Ping’s favorite saying in the world was “It’s just like dreamland!” Ping had GREAT English, but this was the only incorrect phrase she used, and she used it all the time! EVERYTHING was “just like dreamland” in her mind, it was hilarious! So her nickname is Like Dreamland!
After eating lunch and napping on the boat, we arrived at Yangshuo, which totally looked like Thailand. They were selling ALL kinds of crap and had lots of yummy-looking food! We literally just walked through it on the way to get to our van, but Cindy and I totally would have spent a lot of time eating and shopping there if we were on our own! Perhaps it is best that we didn’t!
We drove back to Guilin from there, which took an hour. Apparently the five-hour long river cruise was exhausting, as Cindy, Ping and I all took naps the entire way! Cindy and I woke up before Ping. Suddenly she opened her eyes a bit and said sleepily, “Time to wake up....for meeeeee!” with a big smile on her face. It was hilarious! I love Guilin people!
Once we got to Guilin, we went to Elephant Trunk Hill, which of course was a big rock/mountain that looked like an elephant! Haha. This is why we were able to do Guilin in like a day, as all you can do there is be like, “Hey, it looks like an elephant!” and then turn around and go somewhere else. And that is what we did! :)
After that we went to Fubo Hill, which is about 700 feet tall. According to Cindy’s blog, half of it stands in the river, and half of it stands on land. Thanks, Cindy! Anyway, Ping left us on our own to climb it. She said it would take about 10-15 minutes each way, but we somehow climbed it, took pictures, and climbed back down in five minutes or less! Ping couldn’t believe it! She asked if we ran to the top and we were like, “Um, NO!” She obviously doesn’t know us! Hehe. Anyway, she then realized that we are the fastest people in the world when it comes to tourist things! Hehe.
We then went to Seven Star Park, which is a big park that also has a zoo. It was a really pretty park. Very relaxing! Oh, I should mention that I swear Ping secretly sells real estate in Guilin, as she constantly was advertising how it is such a great place to live, is beautiful, relaxing, and that we should retire there! I could totally do that, as it is the most chill place ever, but it was funny that she mentioned it every ten seconds! Chinese people are so proud!
Anyway, at the park we wandered around and ended up at the zoo, where my Chinese dream came true! I said I wouldn’t leave China until we saw a panda, and we DID! He was soooooooooooooooooooo cute! He was devouring some carrots when we were there, and apparently it is pretty rare to see him awake, so I was very happy! WOOT! Yay pandas!
It had been like an hour since we saw a rock in the shape of an animal, so we were able to fill our rock-animal craving by seeing a big “camel” there!
We had some free time before our dinner, so Cheap Jeff and Cindy decided to finally take up a tour guide on one of their offers! Guilin is famous for foot massages, as one of the minorities traditionally only showered (I think) three times in their life, but would bathe and massage their feet every day. They live hella long, so I guess it is good for you! Anyway, we went to a BIG five-star foot massage place that was nice! Definitely expensive for China, but totally worth it, as it was nice and clean!
Oh my god, the hour-long foot massage was sooooooooo nice, especially with all of the walking we had been doing for the last week! I wanted a hot boy masseuse, but Ping ordered me a girl, hrmph! Hehe. My masseuse didn’t talk, but Cindy’s asked her like her whole life story in Mandarin, and asked about our relationship! Apparently I can understand some Mandarin, as I totally knew what she was asking about me! Hehe, sneaky Chinese peeps!
Next we went to dinner, which was weird, as it was a Chinese wedding! Like, it was a restaurant, but there was a big wedding party there having dinner. Um, why wouldn’t they reserve the whole place??? There were like five non-wedding tables, and we were one of them! It was strange but amusing. I got WAY more gaijin stares there, as I think people wondered what the hell I was doing at a Chinese wedding!
After dinner we had free time (since we are the fastest tourists in the world), so we walked around the streets of Guilin and just chilled Guilin-style before our minority performance show. That is where we ran into the guy who was on our boat ride for the THIRD time that day. Guilin is teeny!
The minority performance show was fun! Minority performance shows are always fairly sexy, and this one didn’t disappoint! Yay shirtless boys! :) It was nice to understand the significance of costumes and dances and stuff, since Ping had told us about a lot of minorities’ customs, so we knew what it all meant! It would have been entertaining either way, but this way it was a lot more interesting.
After that we went back to our hotel, and walked around the lake there. It was pretty, despite them lighting it totally Asian-style, i.e. you can see it from space! Asians need to learn that more lights aren’t necessarily better! Haha. It was still pretty, though. Then we returned to our hotel room. OH, I forgot to say that our hotel apparently had some love hotel influence, as in the bathroom they had this basket of stuff you could buy? Like, apparently sexy guys briefs, tho they were NOT sexy. They also had male and female “genital wash?” Um, ewww! And other weird sex-related stuff! It was strange!
Another AMUSING fact about Guilin is that they have tons of bridges, all of which are mini replicas of famous bridges around the world! They have a mini Golden Gate Bridge, a mini some-French famous bridge, etc! It was hilarious.
The next day we only had the morning in Guilin, and we spent it at the Reed Flute Cave, which is five kilometers northwest of Guilin (i.e. not far, since nothing is!). There are literally thousands of caves around Guilin, but Reed Flute is famous, as it is VERY large. It also has historical significance, as it has been used as a hideout for local people in times of war. During World War II, it was used as an air raid shelter.
The cave was beautiful, though it had a bit too much artificial lighting for my taste. However, it was still amazing to see. It is pretty sad, but I am too spoiled by like Disneyland and artificial things like that, so it was really difficult for me to realize that it was REAL nature, rather than man-made! Like, the texture of the rocks makes it look really fake, even though it isn’t! Hehe, how depressing. Anyway, it was really pretty.
After that we went to the airport and said our goodbyes to Like Dreamland and our driver. And with that, we were off to Shanghai!
To be continued...man, I am tired of writing this!!!!
On the way to the hotel from the airport, Ping told us ALL kinds of stuff about Guilin, and we FINALLY knew the answers to a Chinese person’s pop quizzes! Yay! Our tours were paying off! Ping is a minority in China, which is pretty rare, considering only 8% of Chinese people are not of Han ethnicity. In this 8%, there are 56 different minorities! On the way to the hotel we learned the customs of a few of the “major” minorities, and they were really interesting. They also helped us with our minority show we went to later on!
We got to the hotel very late and were EXHAUSTED. It was a nice hotel, as it was on a lake with lots of nature around it. Then again, that shouldn’t be too surprising, since Guilin is like the land of nature! Oh, for those who don’t know anything about Guilin, I will tell you random facts! Guilin is in the south of China. It has a population of about 670,000 people. “Guilin” means “forest of Sweet Osmanthus,” which is a type of tree that is ALL OVER Guilin, apparently, but we weren’t there at the right time to see them in bloom. Guilin is incredibly famous for their nature. It has been seen in countless paintings and films. The people there are soooooooooo much different from people in the big cities, as Cindy and I are convinced they are all high the whole time! It totally reminded me of Eugene! Everyone is SO laidback and doesn’t care about anything! It is great! It was really relaxing to be around people like that! Like, people just chill in the park all day long and stuff!
Anyway, we were SUPPOSED to get there in the early afternoon that day, so we were worried that we weren’t going to have enough time to do everything on our itinerary. Fortunately, however, Guilin is teeny and EVERYTHING is like five minutes away! It was crazy! There is also not that much to do, so we were able to cram everything into a day and a not-even-half!
Day 7
We got up early on our first real day in Guilin, had breakfast, then met with Ping and our cool driver (I don’t know why I think our drivers are cool, we never talk to them! But they are!) to drive to the port (is that what you call it?) to go on our river cruise! The Li River is famous, as it is a big river in China and blah blah. Anyway, we were lucky with our timing, as there is barely any water in the river in the winter, let alone this scary global warming winter! So we were there like right before they cut the cruise short for the winter (from five hours to like one or so). Five hours sounds like the LONGEST river cruise in the world, but it was just relaxing and whatever, so the time kinda flew by! Cindy and I were in the rich gaijin area of the boat, as we had our own reserved room at the top that was all nice and warm and had a great view! All of the other cheap bastards were down below and they had to stand on the top in the cold to see everything! Sad! Anyway, in the rich gaijin area was me and Cindy, this random white guy by himself, and the MOST INTRIGUING FAMILY EVER. Oh, and our tour guides, who have the easiest job in the world (they just sat there and talked and enjoyed the heat!).
Anyway, most intriguing family ever! So they were Asian-Europeans, which is always interesting to me because that is way more interesting than Asian-Americans! Haha. Well, the parents were from China, I believe? They lived in Amsterdam, though, and they were there with their daughter and her boyfriend, who is also Asian. Um, they all spoke literally like at LEAST five languages! Like, they would just switch between languages the whole time, it was so crazy! And they were also rich as shit, you could just tell by looking at them! Anyway, I guess you kinda had to be there, but Cindy and I would just sit there and listen in and be amazed by them. I want to spend a day with them and just watch them! Hahaha.
Anyway, Cindy and I were sneaky and had to find a way to find Ping’s name out without asking her, as that would be embarrassing. So Cindy asked her for an emergency contact card in case we needed to call her if we got lost or something, hehe. So, we THINK her name is Ping! :)
The boat cruise was really nice! The area was beautiful, as it was just hills (or “mountains,” depending on your definition of mountains, I guess) for like hours! They were so pretty. And it was really green and relaxing! We would walk outside for pictures, then go back in our great heated room and sit down and relax :) There may have been some river napping involved! Hehe.
During our cruise, we realized that the people of Guilin’s favorite hobby is to stare at rocks and figure out what they look like. In our stay in Guilin we saw a camel rock, a Buddha rock, a thumbs up rock, horses on the rocks, EVERYTHING! Like, they seriously just decided, “Hey, this rock looks like a naninani!” It was amusing.
We also realized that Ping’s favorite saying in the world was “It’s just like dreamland!” Ping had GREAT English, but this was the only incorrect phrase she used, and she used it all the time! EVERYTHING was “just like dreamland” in her mind, it was hilarious! So her nickname is Like Dreamland!
After eating lunch and napping on the boat, we arrived at Yangshuo, which totally looked like Thailand. They were selling ALL kinds of crap and had lots of yummy-looking food! We literally just walked through it on the way to get to our van, but Cindy and I totally would have spent a lot of time eating and shopping there if we were on our own! Perhaps it is best that we didn’t!
We drove back to Guilin from there, which took an hour. Apparently the five-hour long river cruise was exhausting, as Cindy, Ping and I all took naps the entire way! Cindy and I woke up before Ping. Suddenly she opened her eyes a bit and said sleepily, “Time to wake up....for meeeeee!” with a big smile on her face. It was hilarious! I love Guilin people!
Once we got to Guilin, we went to Elephant Trunk Hill, which of course was a big rock/mountain that looked like an elephant! Haha. This is why we were able to do Guilin in like a day, as all you can do there is be like, “Hey, it looks like an elephant!” and then turn around and go somewhere else. And that is what we did! :)
After that we went to Fubo Hill, which is about 700 feet tall. According to Cindy’s blog, half of it stands in the river, and half of it stands on land. Thanks, Cindy! Anyway, Ping left us on our own to climb it. She said it would take about 10-15 minutes each way, but we somehow climbed it, took pictures, and climbed back down in five minutes or less! Ping couldn’t believe it! She asked if we ran to the top and we were like, “Um, NO!” She obviously doesn’t know us! Hehe. Anyway, she then realized that we are the fastest people in the world when it comes to tourist things! Hehe.
We then went to Seven Star Park, which is a big park that also has a zoo. It was a really pretty park. Very relaxing! Oh, I should mention that I swear Ping secretly sells real estate in Guilin, as she constantly was advertising how it is such a great place to live, is beautiful, relaxing, and that we should retire there! I could totally do that, as it is the most chill place ever, but it was funny that she mentioned it every ten seconds! Chinese people are so proud!
Anyway, at the park we wandered around and ended up at the zoo, where my Chinese dream came true! I said I wouldn’t leave China until we saw a panda, and we DID! He was soooooooooooooooooooo cute! He was devouring some carrots when we were there, and apparently it is pretty rare to see him awake, so I was very happy! WOOT! Yay pandas!
It had been like an hour since we saw a rock in the shape of an animal, so we were able to fill our rock-animal craving by seeing a big “camel” there!
We had some free time before our dinner, so Cheap Jeff and Cindy decided to finally take up a tour guide on one of their offers! Guilin is famous for foot massages, as one of the minorities traditionally only showered (I think) three times in their life, but would bathe and massage their feet every day. They live hella long, so I guess it is good for you! Anyway, we went to a BIG five-star foot massage place that was nice! Definitely expensive for China, but totally worth it, as it was nice and clean!
Oh my god, the hour-long foot massage was sooooooooo nice, especially with all of the walking we had been doing for the last week! I wanted a hot boy masseuse, but Ping ordered me a girl, hrmph! Hehe. My masseuse didn’t talk, but Cindy’s asked her like her whole life story in Mandarin, and asked about our relationship! Apparently I can understand some Mandarin, as I totally knew what she was asking about me! Hehe, sneaky Chinese peeps!
Next we went to dinner, which was weird, as it was a Chinese wedding! Like, it was a restaurant, but there was a big wedding party there having dinner. Um, why wouldn’t they reserve the whole place??? There were like five non-wedding tables, and we were one of them! It was strange but amusing. I got WAY more gaijin stares there, as I think people wondered what the hell I was doing at a Chinese wedding!
After dinner we had free time (since we are the fastest tourists in the world), so we walked around the streets of Guilin and just chilled Guilin-style before our minority performance show. That is where we ran into the guy who was on our boat ride for the THIRD time that day. Guilin is teeny!
The minority performance show was fun! Minority performance shows are always fairly sexy, and this one didn’t disappoint! Yay shirtless boys! :) It was nice to understand the significance of costumes and dances and stuff, since Ping had told us about a lot of minorities’ customs, so we knew what it all meant! It would have been entertaining either way, but this way it was a lot more interesting.
After that we went back to our hotel, and walked around the lake there. It was pretty, despite them lighting it totally Asian-style, i.e. you can see it from space! Asians need to learn that more lights aren’t necessarily better! Haha. It was still pretty, though. Then we returned to our hotel room. OH, I forgot to say that our hotel apparently had some love hotel influence, as in the bathroom they had this basket of stuff you could buy? Like, apparently sexy guys briefs, tho they were NOT sexy. They also had male and female “genital wash?” Um, ewww! And other weird sex-related stuff! It was strange!
Another AMUSING fact about Guilin is that they have tons of bridges, all of which are mini replicas of famous bridges around the world! They have a mini Golden Gate Bridge, a mini some-French famous bridge, etc! It was hilarious.
The next day we only had the morning in Guilin, and we spent it at the Reed Flute Cave, which is five kilometers northwest of Guilin (i.e. not far, since nothing is!). There are literally thousands of caves around Guilin, but Reed Flute is famous, as it is VERY large. It also has historical significance, as it has been used as a hideout for local people in times of war. During World War II, it was used as an air raid shelter.
The cave was beautiful, though it had a bit too much artificial lighting for my taste. However, it was still amazing to see. It is pretty sad, but I am too spoiled by like Disneyland and artificial things like that, so it was really difficult for me to realize that it was REAL nature, rather than man-made! Like, the texture of the rocks makes it look really fake, even though it isn’t! Hehe, how depressing. Anyway, it was really pretty.
After that we went to the airport and said our goodbyes to Like Dreamland and our driver. And with that, we were off to Shanghai!
To be continued...man, I am tired of writing this!!!!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Craving
Oh my god, I have been craving Burrito Boy SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO badly the last few days, I need it RIGHT NOW. Seriously. If anyone is in Eugene, you NEED to go there immediately and eat a chicken wet burrito (with no sour cream) for me. NOW. Sigh......
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Only 48 days...
Only 48 days until my boyo comes! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, Eduardo needs to be here RIGHT NOW! 48 days, 48 days, 48 days......
(a picture for no reason!)
(a picture for no reason!)
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