Long Time, No Blog

Alright...

So...

I've been lazy.

I know, I know.

I'll make it up to you baby, I promise.

I have a partial excuse though. Right after Christmas, a large earthquake struck off the coast of Taiwan (very, very far from us), damaging the primary fiber optic cables linking the U.S. and Asia. Repairs are underway but, well, here is the latest news on that situation. The short of it is that any communication between Asia and North America has been slowed considerably, including email, and updating my cute little blog here. Michelle has updated hers in spite of all this, and I am now convinced that she either has the patience of a saint or a serious drive to make me look bad. If I haven't emailed you lately, it is because my email account has taken a serious hit and won't open at all 90% of the time (60% of the time, it works every time.) I will get back to you though. Fret not! Skype is stil working (oddly enough) despite these problems, so if you'd like to chat with Shell or I, log on and get a free account. I'm not sure whether it is an enticement or a deterrent, but I also have a webcam now too.

What has happened since Christmas you ask?

Well, first there was the Christmas program on the 29th. This is a big show that the English Department (the largest department in the school) puts on, partially for the foreign teachers, partially to have fun. It is a big production and involves singing, dancing, skits, and other fun things. All of the prefecture's finest show up including the local Communist Party leaders, school officials, labor leaders, students and teachers. While we were waiting for the show to start, one of the school officials showed up and, with the aid of some...ummm...Christmas spirits felt that he wanted to share his happiness by suddenly grabbing MY FACE and pressing it up against his own as a sign of friendship. I made the wide-eyed going-to-be-hit-by-a-car-any-second look as he did it, not realizing what was happening. He was just very happy that we were there and wanted to share the feeling with me I guess. Why he didn't share his joy with any of the other foreign teachers in the same way I'm not sure, but I'm choosing to consider it a compliment. Needless to say, this provided some fun for my lovely, supportive, and caring wife who was lunging for the camera as if she'd seen Bigfoot making crop circles. Luckily, she was too slow.

The show was very nice, we were asked to perform a little something for the show too so we put about 5 minutes of thought and rehersal into our version of "Jingle Bells" and, despite my best efforts, people survived the experience. After the show came the photo shoot portion of the evening where the foreign teachers were requested to have our photos taken with every student in a 5 mile radius. It was only something like 40-50 pictures, but it went on for a while. What can I say? I'm like a rock star here, baby.

New Year's Day was subdued. We went to the VSO woman's apartment (flat) to celebrate the holiday with the other English Department teachers. It went very well and I was able to hang out with my friends and ring in the new year.

The semester has ended here and the English Department had a large dinner of huoguo (hotpot) to send us off on vacation. We went to one of the nicest restaurants in Cheng Xian (the CX!) and had a wonderful meal consisting of HUGE piles of meat. It was glorious and amazing. I'll be honest....I almost cried. It was delicious. After the meal we all went out to KTV (karaoke to you) to sing and dance together. There were around 30 people jammed into the room and we all danced and sang and had a great time. Nothing beats seeing your 40 -(50-?) something dean getting down to techno music while one of your colleagues belts out the lyrics. Imagine seeing Mrs. Stallcop get her dance on to techno and you'll understand the picture I think.

Since then, the semester has ended and the school has cleared out. We can't quite leave town for our Chengdu meeting/vacation yet, so we need to hang around for a couple of weeks. It has been really cold lately, so we just hang around the house reading, watching movies, web surfing the sllllllooooooowwwww internet and playing games. I can't wait until spring creeps in again. I want to go out and play ball, hike, and explore. Also, our vacation to Thailand is coming soon and we'll be in the tropics! It'll be a nice break from the cold here. We'll leave for Chengdu at the end of the month and we won't come back here again until the very end of February.

In the mean time, I have decided that I will undertake photo requests. Want a photo of something here in the CX? Curious about what something looks like here? Leave me a message and I'll see if I can photograph it and post it to the blog here. I'm bored and it'll give me something to do.

Also, let me know what is going on back home. Any exciting news out there?

Photos:

Photo 1: Me in the CX. We were heading home with our groceries. Incidentally, if you have Google Earth and want to see our apartment building, they have a new, updated, and very clear picture of our home now! Here are the coordinates, you can just cut and paste them right in: 33°45'23.93"N, 105°44'21.07"E

Photo 2: It's the Fly Girls! Okay, it's an oudated reference. Back in the good ol' days of covered wagons and modems, there was a sketch comedy show called In Living Color. The Fly Girls were the group of dancers that performed between sketches. One of them was a young Jennifer Lopez (It's Jenny from The Block!) We call these girls the Fly Girls because anytime there is an opportunity for a public dance performance, you know they'll be in it, dancing away!

Photo 3: Everyone in the show and the school officials all together for one big photo op! Where's Waldo?

Photo 4: A couple of my students. I met them as I was coming back to campus, so I stopped and took their photo. The one on the left, Sailor, is wearing the sleeve protectors that all of the girls wear in class to keep their jackets from getting dirty. They just slide over your coat sleeves. Clothes are expensive and pains are taken to ensure that they will last a long time. The sleeve protectors do just that.

Photo 5: This is a photo one of my friends emailed to me from the Thanksgiving football game we played. The Eagles lost to the Saints a couple of days ago. I stayed up all night to catch the game. Bummer deal...

Photo 6: Underpants! Fashion underwear to be precise. Fashion underwear for lover to be even more precise.