My students are hard workers

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a video has got to be a dictionary's worth. This is my first attempt at uploading a video to my blog. I am filming from my second floor classroom in building K3. In the video I pan  across buildings K1 then K2 and the court yard of the international school, then into the classroom. You then see my students hard at work. Let me know what you think of the video by writing a comment below. I will try to post more videos in the future.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

This weekend I visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was Xi'an's most famous cultural attraction until the terra cotta warriors were unearthed. The pagoda still remains a symbol of the city and a must see location for visitors to Xi'an. The pagoda was built over 1300 years ago when the Tang dynasty ruled China from Xi'an. The purpose of the pagoda was to store buddhist sutras and figurines brought from India.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda from the north

Fountain pool on north side of pagoda

A wall depicting scenes from the Silk Road. Xi'an was the terminus of the Silk Road in China.

A fake tree on the grounds of the pagoda. It appears to have an electrical purpose.

Path around the pagoda

Souvenir stalls. Hundreds of identical stalls selling the same merchandise.

Peaceful Pavilion.

Park on the south side of the pagoda

Another fake tree

View of the pagoda from the south square

Statue on south square in front of pagoda

South square

South gate of pagoda

A man writing on the sidewalk with water symbolizing the transience of life

'Pancakes here look like manhole covers. There are easy to carry when the locals go on a journey'

A happy chinese family.

China uses only the finest grass on the grounds of its cultural attactions

A final look at the pagoda from the south park

The Pizza Hut Pagoda. It was built in 2003 to store recipes and silverware brought from America.

My official paperwork is complete...mostly

It takes a lot of paperwork to get to china. Even more if you plan to live and work in china for an extended period of time. I thought the contracts and visa applications I filed in america would be the end of it. They were just the tip of the iceberg. The upside is I now know my passport number by heart. My recent visit to the Shaanxi visa office appears to be the final trip in my paperwork journey. I now have my health certification and foreign expert certification. I will get my multiple entry class Z (working) visa this thursday, just in time for my trip to Chengdu. Below are pictures of my certificates. Very formal. Very official.

The fruits of my trip to the health examiner

First page of the health certificate. Negative for infectious diseases, high marks on measures of health, and an A for blood type. Cant do much better than that. Next time I'll smile for the photo.

Looks like a passport, expensive like a passport, but wont get me through airport security.

The next page has my picture. Same one from the health certificate.

What chinese college students do in their free time

I've asked students in all of my classes what they do for fun in their spare time. The most common responses have been 'sleeping' and 'I have no free time'. But through weeks of careful investigation into the matter, I have found that students here do more than just study and sleep. Below is my list of the most popular activities among students at Siyuan University.

6 ROLLERBLADING/SKATEBOARDING

There may not be many students who can rollerblade or skateboard, but those who can usually draw large crowds of onlookers. There is only one small area of campus where these activities take place. It appears there are more bladers and than boarders because they often have exclusive use of the skating grounds. The bladers seem pretty talented, but I dont remember the last time I saw inline skating in the US, so who am I to judge. I've seen some of the boarders land jumps and olies, so they've probably been at it a while but are no Shawn White.

5 SURVEYING

Ok, well this one doesnt quite count because I doubt students are doing it in their free time. Unless there is a surveying club that I dont know about. But seriously almost everywhere I go on campus I see students surveying. I guess with all the construction going on in China (four in five cranes in the world are in China) that surveyors are in high demand.

4 PING PONG

Chinese students love table tennis. Although the school has supplied more outdoor tables than meet demand. There are several courts like the one pictured above around campus, but they usually have just a few games being played. The courts are not very well maintained as you can see from the grass coming through the concrete.

3 BASKETBALL

Basketball is by far the most popular sport here at Siyuan. Most guys here idolize Kobe and Lebron. At first I thought the number of courts on campus were overkill, but on weekends they do seem to fill up. I'm not sure what was going on in the shot above, but I think it was a tournament.

2 SHOPPING

This is number two because it is what most girls do with all of their free time. Because Siyuan is a private school, many of the students are rich and have money to spend after class and on weekends. Boys dont like shopping as much as girls do, but any guy with a girlfriend will be roped in to shopping with her. These guys are easy to spot because they are left carrying their girlfriend's purse.

1 COMPUTER GAMES

Without a doubt the number one activity among college students, even girls. When I pried at my students to find out why they had 'no free time', most confessed that they dedicate most of their waking hours playing video games. There are dozens of internet bars on and off campus that are literal caves packed with hundreds of computer monitors to meet the insatiable demand of the student body. I recently discovered that there is a special rate--8RMB--for an all night session from 11pm to 8am. And many students do just that. It is no wonder why so many come to class exhausted or dont come at all.

Wildlife of the hills of Xi'an

Siyuan University's campus is pretty far from the city center of Xi'an. It takes me an hour on an express bus line to get from Siyuan to the center of town. The hills of Siyuan's campus have maintained a pastoral character in contrast to the rapidly urbanizing valley below. Yet it has taken me three weeks to identify wildlife living on campus. Only after I changed my definition of wildlife was I able to spot any.

The typical wildlife present in the American countryside just aren't here. No rabbits, deer, squirrels, rodents etc. If these animals do live in China, they have been chased away by a different kind of wildlife--stray dogs and cats. There are packs of dogs that roam the streets of Siyuan. At first I thought they were pets of the students, but I have since learned that pets are forbidden to the students. Cats walk the aisles of the cafeterias in search of scraps. The only 'typical' kind of wildlife I've since are giant toads. And I assume they are around because the dogs and cats know they are poisonous.

Stray cat outside of my favorite cafeteria

Giant toad on the footstep of my building...most definitely poisonous

 Earlier this week while I was teaching a class, a stray dog came in and curled up under a student's desk. The dog was in the room for 15 minutes before I discovered it. I think the students were trying to hide it from me because Chinese teachers would not tolerate a dog in their classroom. They were quite surprised when all I did was take a few pictures and leave the animal be.

Is that a louis vitton knock-off?

Oh wait, its just a puppy.

I like to think he left my lecture with a better understanding of the English language.

The girls in my class seemed to really enjoy the dog. I asked them who owned the dog. They told me 'he's homeless'. I showed my pictures to students in my other classes. They were all pretty jealous that they had no dog show up in their classroom. One guy who I showed the pictures to was not as pleased. 'Dogs are forbidden. They are filthy and carry disease,' he told me. I asked him what he had against dogs. He grabbed his ankle and said, 'I was bit when I was a child'. I have to admit he's not wrong about them being filthy. Because all the dogs are homeless, most of their diet is made up of garbage. However dogs are not the only things eating garbage at Siyuan.

What's that pecking on garbage?

I really hope these guys are 'homeless' too...just to be safe, I'm not eating at this restaurant anymore.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival, a national Chinese holiday. I asked some of my students to explain the significance of the holiday to me. I attempt to summarize what they told me below:

In the early days of China's 5000 year history, the Earth had ten suns. This made the planet much hotter and caused the Chinese people much suffering. One day a hero by the name of Houyi used a bow and arrow to shoot nine of the suns out of the sky. Having made the Earth a much more tolerable place, he turned his efforts to making a potion of immortality. His wife Chang'e took the potion and drank it. Upon becoming immortal, Chang'e flew away to the Moon where she still resides today. The people were saddened over her departure and eat Mooncakes in her memory.

I have since discovered many versions of the Mid-Autumn Festival Story. They are as diverse as China is big, and are often contradictory of one another. The only thing they have in common is they conclude with the Chinese celebrating by eating Mooncakes.

Mooncakes I bought to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival.

The holiday is to be spent among family and friends. Many of the students at Siyuan University are from other provinces, so they went home to visit their families. I spent most of the day wondering around the city with some of my fellow foreign educators. We opted for an unorthodox celebration of the holiday over BBQ at a very nice Korean restaurant.

We passed the Big Wild Goose Pagoda on our way to into the City.

View of the South Gate as we left the City.

When we got back to Siyuan we stubbled upon the University's celebration of the holiday.

Stage set up in front of main academic building.

Somewhere in the blinding light on the stage are performers doing what appeared to be Chinese opera

The crowd of onlookers

I see these red and white uniforms everywhere. I've yet to discover their meaning.

Mid-Autumn Festival is always celebrated on a full moon, seen here obscured by clouds.

MOONCAKES

Mooncakes are small round pastries with raised designs on top and a filling inside. They come in a variety of flavors ranging from nuts and fruits to meat and eggs. My favorite thus far has been hami mellon, but I've also tried lotus paste, peanut, albacore tuna, and duck egg. They are all sweet, even the meats.

The typical Mooncake

The Mooncake's resemblance to the Moon becomes obvious when you leave the flash on.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a gift giving holiday. However, the only gift to give on this holiday is the Mooncake. They run from 3 Yuan on the low end to way to much for a desert on the high end. I was sad that the only Mooncakes I had on the holiday were the one's I bought myself. I felt better today in class when I was gifted Mooncakes by many of my students. Below are the three fanciest one's I received.

This Mooncake is four time the size of any other I've seen. Also the only one in a tin.

Tuna

This is the more traditional set of Mooncakes