vacation updates

As I mentioned in the last post, I am now on vacation. When I can find a chance to grab a half hour on the Internet, I will update here.

1/20: arrived in Xi'an and waited through INSANE crowds of people to get on a train to PingYao

mobbish 'lines' outside the train station lead you to this little mess inside!

1/21: arrived in PingYao of Shanxi Province. From what I have only just seen, this place is quite a m a z i n g , so I am going to be here longer than I expected. For those fellow teachers who are traveling around China and are in the area, let me give you this brief introduction. It is Asia's Wall Street from about 150 years ago. And it has been preserved as an ancient city since then. No cars (not entirely true) , no streetlights, etc. You can visit cool places like China's first draft bank and the old court/prison. Also many huge mansions because this was the wealthy merchants' province in the Ming and Qing Dynasties... and PingYao was the finance capital of it all. It's history that surrounds you. And the hostel says there will be authentic and elaborate street performances each of the 15 days of spring festival. I'm stoked! Come over if you're in the neighborhood!

traditional Han culture city preserved in time... for the most part

(can you spot a car?)

1/22: Happy Birthday, Nate!

Don't assume the bright sun in this picture means that it is warm here... no, no, no...

colder that Blago's chances for the presidency

1/23: suddenly it is very cold here (highs of -1x Celcius/roughly 0 F during the day... and winds take who knows what toll) (funny how Nathan's birthday always seems to fall in the worst of cold spells) Anyways, I've been to DeKalb in January, so it'll have to be a lot colder to make me stay indoors. And if that does happen, I'm now residing in a great hostel and would HAPPILY stay indoors all day if the sand in the cold air push me too far. Still having a great time!

If I had to stay home for a bit, it would be a sweet banishment. Look!, this is my hostel... it's quite like the bedroom of people living here 200 years ago... and this hostel is the former location of the PingYao magistrate's guesthouse. Important people slept here! Oh, and notice the elegance of my courtyard at night... and my wooden door completes the look! All hostels and hotels in Pingyao have an extra bit of charm compared to other cities, but this particular Pingyao hostel must rank as one of the best. It's called Yamen hostel. And not only was the atmosphere appealing but so was its central location, the amenities, the price of the room, and the genuine friendliness of the staff. Yamen hostel is tops.

1/24: Getting colder... temps dipped down to -20 C yesterday afternoon and plunged further overnight. Going to be colder today, but there are more places to see. I can sum up my experience with this simple sentence: I now own a scarf!

wool jacket with hood purchased in Xi'an

that hat was knitted and gifted me by one of my students

that scarf was purchased today at an inflated price... but no price is too high when your retainers begin to freeze to the roof of your mouth

and those glasses are dirty... just noticed that

1/25: New Year's Eve... what will happen today?

aaaah... fireworks of all kinds!

my favorite picture

1/26: Oh my! Fireworks are STILL blasting all over town 9 hours after the dawn of this Ox year. Last night we hostel guests and staff together watched the famous New Years gala until midnight. Then at midnight (actually ten minutes early), the entire city went outdoors to light 40,000 individuals' personal supplyof fireworks. There were skyworks, rockets, sparklers, sizzlers, flash bangs for 30 minutes of constant incendiary madness... after about an hour, the fireworks slowed to the pulse of a person at rest. Then this morning, they started up again. Oh, Did you hear that? Another pop just outside.... this is going to last a while I think.... hahaha, so much fun!

1/27: The weather has slightly improved... just as I'm leaving... oh well. One last place to visit and it's a WOW!er... the famous Wang Family courtyard castle (Wang Jia Da Yuan) in Jingsheng Town some 50 kilometers south of Pingyao. And then tonight I confront the train that will drag me from the 18th Century back to 2009....

1/28: Arrived in Xi'an this morning. Now what?

1/29: Many restaurants are closed, but there is more street food everywhere to offer the tourists (at inflated prices of course). I like street food very much and so I am more than willing to risk what it may do to my digestive system to try it again and again.

Also, woke up last night to the sound of what must have been a bar fight on the 1st floor of the hostel. I heard loud, masculine Chinese insults and the sound of many glass objects breaking. Must be a bar fight... either that or a Shaanxi opera performance.

1/30: shopping, shopping, shopping. Yesterday I went to Xi'an SaiGe 'Computer City'... it's like Best Buy only much bigger, much less organized, and much more exciting to stroll through (oh, and no boring things like washing machines or refridgerators on sale there). And don't expect any warranties... we all know a good lot of the ware is fake, illegal, or junk. As for me, I bought some pirated movies, TV shows, and video games. My Great Wall of Intellectual Property Rights Morality crumbles in the face of seasons 1-2 of CBS Jericho for $1.50 and seasons 1-18 of the Simpsons for $8 USD!!!! Oh, oh, I am so weak :-(

1/31: today's mission is to eat more local food... with a particular target on confectionary bakery stuffs... oh, and fish-n-mushroom kabobs

2/1: February feels like October. I have just witnessed a drastic twist of climate. Lionish Mongolian cold last week.. lamb breezes this week. Crazy weather!

My goal today is to go to the movie theatre to watch ChiBi Xia (Red Cliff Part 2). Hmmm...I wonder what Chinese movie theatres are like? And I wonder if I'll sit next to the bootlegger who made the illegal movies I bought the other day?

Watching ChiBi Part 2... best cinema experience of my life... no debate

2/2: I am on a mad hunt for my grade2 students' English textbook. Grade 2 classes begin tomorrow, but this book is nowhere to be found at any of the bookstores.... sold out? Not arrived at store? Not yet printed? Don't know. It's the art of procrastination taken to its limits.... and from one procrastinator to 1.3 billion procrastinators sometimes even I feel like saying, "Get the ball moving!"

2/3: Last minute things, then homeward bound. All vacations must come to an end.