Advice and a Foreign Restaurant!

Okay, first: watch this video.

I get a lot of emails from people asking me for advice, so I made this video, for which there's a sequel in the works. By the way, YouTube really hates me right now, so all the stuff I upload looks like total crap. Watch the first embed- it's HD quality on Youku.

If you have no plans to come to China, then this video's not really for you -- but you can always watch it if you want. If you don't want to, skip to the next bit down below!

By the way, if you want to contact me, you can email me at letchinasleep@gmail.com or send me a message on YouTube or leave a comment. 

Okay, now onto other things.

I went to a real American restaurant today! It's run by this American guy named Josh who's studying aeronautical engineering or something crazy like that.

He's got his own family recipes for the menu, which includes hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, and salad.....I can't remember much else.

There's not much in the way of food, but I got the burger, which was really awesome!

There's a ton of cocktails and drinks you can order, and the main waitress there has devised some way of creating her own version of Dr. Pepper...........WHICH IS AWESOME!!! It tastes just like it --- how does she do it??

Anyway, I went with a couple of friends and one of their husbands, and it was pretty cool. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

As you can see, it's called "Charlie's Kitchen" (Charlie is Josh's dad), and here's the address: 城关甘南路中段，1881酒吧旁边. Anyway, there it is! If you're a Lanzhou Laowai, you might want to check this out - you can also find it on Weibo, @查理的厨房. 

 A cool thing that they have is this map of the States - if you're from the States, you can sign your name there and draw a line to where you're from.

They also said you can draw a picture or something, but I can't do that, so I didn't.....

East Texas represent!

 One funny thing about the restaurant is the menus -- they're just cheap, black, paper menus that are written on in silver sharpie.

But that's cool! It adds to the charm of the simple little restaurant. It's a great place run by the American guy and this American-born Chinese girl, who are both bilingual, so it's no problem if you're the lone Laowai.

It's nice to be back in a restaurant with that good old home food, you know? Sometimes you feel like a fish out of water in all this Chinese-ness. I don't want to (and can't) eat this every day, but it's definitely something I want to introduce to my friends and students and my internet people.

They have a chili cheese dog with sausage they bring in from the US! And real cheese and all that - pretty cool! Anyway, see you guys later!

"Charlie's Kitchen"'s address is: 城关甘南路中段，1881酒吧旁边. If you're a Lanzhou Laowai, you might want to check this out - you can also find it on Weibo, @查理的厨房. 

Wuquan Mountain and National Day Video

All right! I finally put together my Wuquan (5 Springs) Mountain video! I have just been lazy, so I hadn't done it till a couple of days ago.....but here it is! Sorry for the nearly two week-long delay!


If you're having problems with the embedded video, click here to go to the original video page. There shouldn't be a problem on that page

Unfortunately, I've lost my USB Drive, so I can't transfer any more pictures of the place to this computer yet....so, sorry about that. I hope I can upload them soon!

The video will just have to do for now. But, luckily, this is in HD - I took the pictures and the raw footage with my iPhone, which, although is a little unsteady, does a pretty decent job in the HD department!

Anyway, yeah, Wuquan was a fun way to spend a morning, as well as Lan Mountain. What, mountains AND hotpot???!!! Fantastic!!! That's a recipe for win.

Bai Ta Shan and Guo Xue Guan Videos!

(Before I start this post, I just want to apologize...I've been the perfect combination of busy and lazy these past couple of weeks, so I haven't done anything. My bad. I'll try to catch up on my posts and updates.)

October 1st was the Chinese National Day - the day China celebrates its being a country. As I'm writing this post right now, I'm surprised that there really hasn't been much celebration.....this is supposed to be a really important holiday, right? How come there's no fireworks, no celebration, and all that? In America, we go nuts during that holiday. I don't want to speculate about China's population's feelings towards their government, but it might have something to do with it.

As you (might) know, a couple of weeks ago, I went to Lanzhou's Bai Ta Shan (White Tower Pagoda) for an afternoon. Here is the video for that afternoon. I'll also add it to my post, which you can read here.



A couple of days ago, I went to another place in Lanzhou called 九州台山 (Jiu Zhou Tai Mountain), which is located in the northern part of the city. On the mountain, there's a Confucian-style temple called the 国学馆 (Guo Xue Guan). Here's the video for that one:

Well, this was a very interesting place - distinctly Chinese, which is what I like. There are lots of different places on the top of this mountain, but the place I was headed to was the "Guo Xue Guan," a Confucian-style temple dedicated to thinkers and writers of Chinese history.

It's in a classic place for a temple - on top of a mountain!

Like I've said in the videos, I like going to mountains for a number of reasons. My hometown doesn't have any mountains, so it's still a new experience to live in a place full of them.

I also love getting above the noise and craziness of the city and see just how big the city is. I'm not Chinese, so I think this is a big city....they keep insisting this city of 4 million people is a small town. Crazy Chinese people.

Going to temples is a serious thing for me - it's a place to pay respect to those who have gone before me and to learn about what they did during their lifetime and how they contributed to this place that I'm living in.

These places are always very interesting for me - it just highlights the differences between America and China. America just doesn't have this kind of history and culture. It's not America's fault or anything - it just hasn't been around for long enough.

I don't really get into the offering of incense and ritual worship and stuff like that, but I definitely understand the respect that's behind it. The temple centers around Confucius, who you see right here. In front of him, you can see where they light the incense and make donations to the temple.

While I understand the respect being paid to Confucius, I have to say, I am always pretty confused about the offering of incense to him. He always said that he was just a teacher and just a man. When did he become somebody to be worshiped?  I get confused about that with Buddha too.....but anyway, the place is still very interesting!

(This is the Dao de Jing by Lao Zi written out in its entirety. The whole other side of the stone is filled up as well.)

As you can see, getting to this place is no easy task. The stairs are really steep, and this is a real mountain....not just a hill.

Me and my friends Nick and Xia Fei took a cab to the top of the mountain to see everything on top of the mountains, but we climbed down on our way back home.

It's insanity - all we did was climb down, and we still all had shaking and sore legs by the time we got the street at the bottom. Man, it was crazy.

But again, the location adds to the mystique and mystery of the place - mountaintops are classic places to put temples in China. It seems like almost every mountain here in China has a temple dedicated to someone.

All in all, it was a good day with some friends - I got to learn about some traditional Chinese culture and history, see the city, and hang out with some people I hadn't seen in a long time.

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A few days after that, I went with some other friends to climb a couple of mountains. I have lots of pictures and a few videos from that day, so I'm gonna be posting that when I can. This week is a bit crazy because it's the first week back from vacation, so I can't promise anything, but I will really try to do another post in the next 7 days.

Until next time,

Austin Guidry

Good Times and Being Content

So, it's been a while since I posted something, and a lot has happened in the past few days. I'll do a post tomorrow or the day after about the other stuff.

One thing that has been the highlight of my recent life was my trip to Bai Ta Shan, or White Pagoda (Tower) Mountain Park in Lanzhou.

It's located just north of Zhongshan Bridge near downtown Lanzhou.

Along with the bridge itself, it is a central landmark of the city. If you say, "Oh, it's by Bai Ta Shan," people will know exactly where you mean. 

Yeah, you can see from the pictures here, it's a pretty cool place - there's a lot of trees and shade, and it's pretty "new." 

Last year, it was being remodeled, so I didn't get to go to the park itself. I just got to go to another peak of the mountain range. 

I went with a bunch of Chinese friends and another foreign teacher. It was a great afternoon - a lot of laughs and a lot of new sights.  

The part is facing directly south. If you look at the picture here, you can see the gate to the park is directly across the street from the north-south running Zhongshan Bridge. Pretty much every important building, historical site, park, etc. has a gate somewhere, if not the main gate, facing north or south. 

That makes living in a city like Lanzhou easy. The river runs east-west, so you always can figure out where you are.

I had seen this exact picture so many times on the internet, but the pictures just aren't the same as actually being there. You just think to yourself, "Wow, I can't believe that I live here. This is such a crazy, amazing, polluted, wonderful, dirty, loud, and unique city. How did I end up here?" I did another post about "Seeing The Elephant," which talked about how it's impossible to understand these kind of feelings without actually being there. I hope someday you can come here and experience these things for yourself. It's great here.

You know, I came from a very small city of about 100,000 people, and to be in a city like this is a very interesting and wonderful experience.

It's so different from my hometown - Lanzhou has a long history and has a lot of special food and culture. I'm not saying that my hometown doesn't have these things, it's just a different kind of special.

Just look at this place - do you live in a place like this?? If you do, that's great! If you don't, try it! If you live in a big city, try going out to the countryside for a little while - find something different. It's been great for me, and I can't wait to try even more new things. It gives you this little rush - a little endorphin buzz every time you do something. It's something that can't be replicated.

Going to Bai Ta Shan may have just been a fun afternoon for my friends, but for me, it was a time to just be in the moment and reflect about where I'm at in my life right now.

I remember, just before I left for China, I was at church, and the preacher did a sermon about being content and not being restless in your life. For some people, they can find it in their job, some people can find it in religion, some people can find it with their friends, or any number of places.

For me, I am truly content in being here and continually learning new stuff and learning new things. I really wish I was my sister sometimes so I could pull out some crazy word from the Oxford English Dictionary to express myself, but I'm not, so I can't. I definitely miss home sometimes - my family, my friends, and the food, but I'm having a good time right now being a teacher and doing my China thing.

__________

Well, that's all I have for tonight - I'll put up another post about some other stuff  this weekend!

"Don't Lose Your Sense of Wonder..." and Upcoming Projects

Well, I have run out of things to do today, so I guess I will put up a blog post! It's funny, blogging was so important a few days ago, and I have totally neglected documenting this "just arrived and still adjusting" time.

I spent yesterday and today at Lanzhou University of Technology, my old school, to see old friends and help one of them do a crazy difficult and heavily technical translation for a recruiting presentation. It was so difficult and seemed impossible at times, but together, we did it! I feel pretty accomplished because I was able to translate pretty well in my own right except for some really, really technical things (like different kinds of engineering projects and statistics kind of technical).

Basically, that made me realize that I DON'T want to be written translator. Ever. That's just too tedious, and because of the nature of written vs. spoken language (not just Chinese, any language), it's much harder and it takes the human element out of the equation. No fun.

Besides that, I hung out, had a few meals with, and joked around with my friends who are still left at L.U.T. - they kind of became my family during that time there, and it brings back memories of great times to see them.

Anyway, you didn't come here to read about me waxing nostalgic - you came here to read about me and Lanzhou (or just Lanzhou.). 

I met a couple of American teachers who live next door to me at Lanzhou Jiaotong University, and they are really cool - they're in their early 40s and the wife has spent some time in Kunming and Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. They can't speak much Chinese, so I gave them some advice and said I would help them out anytime they needed. I like them a lot, and I hope we can hang out more.

Campus is still kind of crazy with all the new students - I see people giving tours to groups of 30-50 people at a time and people are clogging the shops to stock their rooms with snacks, water containers, etc.

Living in China is a constant exercise of your patience, your sense of adventure, and your capacity to deal with unfamiliarity. Pretty much how you do everything in China is different from how it's done in America. The public transportation system is the best way to get around, which is new to most Americans, water must be boiled before drinking, walking is just part of life, not an exercise regime, people drink tea instead of coffee and soda, eat rice, noodles and dumplings instead of pot roast, steak, hot dogs, and burgers, and live in apartments instead of suburban houses. It's a whole different way of life.

My dad told me,

"Hey, while you're over there, don't lose your sense of wonder and appreciation at where you are. You have a really unique opportunity, and you need to not lose sight of where you are and where you come from."

That's been rolling around in my head a lot these past few days, and while the wonder is still fresh in my head being sort of "fresh off the plane" for this time, it's my third time to come to China and to Lanzhou. It's more or less daily life, and it's hard to shake your head out of the daily routine and remember where you are. Most days last year, I totally forgot I was living in China - it was just life. Anyway, I'll try to stay conscious of that.

Anyway, I will make a video about all of that soon - I've been a bit busy and distracted to film much stuff. I've got about 2 minutes of raw footage I could spin into a video, but I want to wait until I've got enough for a good video. I want to make good stuff, you know?

I met an American couple online who are in Lanzhou now who said they saw my videos and read my blog about Lanzhou, and they said it gave them a lot of really good information, so I'm very happy about that, and the American couple who live next door to me said they read my blog and watched my videos as well, so it appears that what I'm doing is at least reaching a few people.

I know  that Lanzhou seems like a relatively unimportant place in a world with cities like New York City, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, London, Sydney, and Chicago, but that doesn't mean that it's not a place worth visiting. It's a whole different kind of city, with great people, great food, unique culture, and a long history.

I will be putting together a series of pages/posts about a "Guide to Lanzhou" project, and I'm hoping to get some feedback from my readers and the people I know here as to what they want to see in it. In the future, I'm kind of hoping that my blog will become a significant stopping place for people who want to visit northwest China, and hopefully Lanzhou in particular. It's got it's faults, sure, but I like it just the way it is.

Until next time,

Austin Guidry

Leaving Lanzhou Again and Update

So, yeah, I've been kind of distracted as of late, as far as the blog is concerned. I had a few days of work, met up with some of my high school friends, and oh, yeah ----

APPLIED FOR MY CHINESE WORK VISA! Yeah!

...............

Which kind of left me totally broke....but luckily, I was able to get an advance on a paycheck, so I am no longer destitute!

Everything's coming together - I've got my plane ticket, and my work visa will be on its way back at the end of the week, so that's great! Then I'll have a student visa, a tourist visa, and a work visa...I'm on my way to getting every kind of visa China offers! hahaha

So, anyway, I found this video that I hadn't put up on the blog yet, and I figured I would put it up for your entertainment/information/education/whatever you want to call it. As you guys know, I was in China from June 13th-July 9th, and this is the final video I made before I left.

It's not much, but here you go....YouTube and Youku! (I actually have another video coming up soon!)





Hotpot, downtown Lanzhou, friends, some traveling, some great food and new experiences - it was a productive and fun trip overall. I wish I hadn't been so terribly ill during it, but oh well, that's what happens when you travel.

Being back just brought back some great memories and happy times, while at the same time creating some more great memories. I've got a few more stories to tell now, and I hope that you guys have the patience to read even more about China as I experience it. Now that I'm at home, I'm spending more time savoring being at home and spending time with my friends and family, so I won't be posting much.

Thanks so much for reading my stuff, you guys! I've gotten a couple more subscribers lately, and I really appreciate them following me. Remember, you guys can always subscribe via email or just follow me from your Blogspot account.

Feel free to leave comments anytime you want, and share any interesting posts/stories - I've got some of my favorites in the tab menu up top, if you want to check them out!

Until next time, my friends!

Chillin' at Lanzhou University of Technology (Video)

I've still got some videos to put on here, but here's one that I made during the first week of my trip.


During me and Rob's trip to Lanzhou, we did a lot of the stuff that we wanted to do. We ate some great food, saw our old friends, played ping pong and badminton, and soaked in the atmosphere of relief and relaxation.

The school year was coming to an end, so most people were finishing up their tests, and the ones who were done were doing absolutely nothing - my favorite activity haha. 

It was great to settle back into the routine of seeing everybody, going to places like the Yellow River, the new soccer field at L.U.T., and not doing much, but just enough to make us really tired at the end of the day.

We both got to learn a little something about the process of graduation for the seniors. The seniors take their applications for graduation to get approved and signed for, and once they're approved, they have to rent their graduation caps and gowns, then they're off to take pictures with all their friends! The pictures are a big deal for them, because it's the last chance for them to all be together for a long time. Each department hold their own special farewell party, and people cry. The emotions are the same as any graduation anywhere, but the process itself is very different. Hooray for learning!

Me, Rob, and all our friends shared meals, activities, laughs, mutual confusion over Chinglish, and now, some great memories.

See you guys next time!

The Cave Homes of Gansu Videos!

Hey, guys!

I finally finished putting together my second video about visiting rural Gansu (赵台，in the country) and staying in a cave home with my friend's relatives. It was a rare opportunity, and I'm really happy that I got to experience it. Hopefully, I'll be able to go back soon!

For those of you who don't know, I visited an area in rural Gansu Province with two of my friends to visit some of their relatives. They live in some of the most beautiful (and remote) countryside I have ever seen. I was blown away by the difference in our lives, and I think about it every day. Please watch these videos. There are embeds from both YouTube and Youku.






This was my original video about going there - I'm sure some of you have already seen it, but I thought I'd put it up again anyway so you guys could watch them in order. As always, it's on Youku and YouTube! Thanks for watching! I'll have more to say on the second video! Scroll down!

 


The second of the two videos is the one that deals with the underlying reality and what I was (and am still) thinking about in regards to the experience. I hope it'll give you something to think about! Please watch them and enjoy them - it's not a huge investment of your time.

Feel free to comment or to subscribe to my blog - it's totally free and no sign-up and I would love to hear from you!

Back in the States

Wow, what a ride!  Hey everyone, I'm back in the States! I'm still suffering from jetlag and I still have yet to catch up on my YouTube subscription and put all the pictures on Facebook, but I'm pretty happy.

Life in L.U.T goes on - a lot of my friends graduated and are moving onto the next step of their lives.

The campus was pretty busy when me and Robert  arrived - since the seniors were graduating, they were trying to sell all their books/clothes/whatever  to the younger students who might need them later.

The campus was in a mild state of chaos with all the noise from the student-turned-vendors, but it was interesting. We don't do that kind of thing in the States.

We went around all the places that I wanted to go - including Zhongshan Bridge.



This bridge is one of the key landmarks of Lanzhou - it was the first bridge built across the Yellow River in a provincial-level city. Built by the Germans as well.



It bridges the gap between the northern and southern part of the city and lies just beneath Bai Ta Mountain, which stands atop the mountain on the north side of the Yellow River.

The Yellow River itself is something worth noting. 

It's the mother of Chinese civilization, which is why it is still called the "Mother River," even today.

The Yellow River provides a measure of tranquility in this crazy little city - people take their pets down to the water, sit in little cafes, drink tea, do Tai Chi, and more. You'll find lots of couples, families, and elderly people along the river.

It was great to be walking along the river again - drinking in the cool breeze in the lovely afternoon. 80 degrees with no humidity and a slight breeze - wonderful!

Of course, what you look forward to the most is your friends. I couldn't wait to see all of my friends again. 

All of us together, sharing meals, taking walks, talking about anything from girls to guns to Chicago to the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" (which seems to be waaaay more popular in China than America). 

"Rock-Paper-Scissor-Lizard-Spock!"

Life goes on in Lanzhou and at L.U.T.. Some time has passed, and while there are new faces, not a lot has changed around campus and in the Qilihe District of Lanzhou. The same hole-in-the-wall restaurants with the same waitresses still serve the same great food, the teachers still bring their children to the playground and soccer field to play at night, the students still do (or don't do) their homework, and time marches on without regard for anyone else.

It was a wonderful trip - I got to do everything I wanted to do and more. Keep an eye out for more posts, there's some cool stuff coming up!

Feel free to comment or to subscribe to my blog - it's totally free and no sign-up and I would love to hear from you!

Tiger Cave and the Villages

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately - I've been pretty sick and also pretty busy....kind of a bad combination. I've got some bronchitis.....crazy, huh? That's not really a summer sickness....after I got here to Huan Xian, there were a couple of hot sunny days, and then it rained for 3 days, and I guess my body didn't really like it.

I've been on meds, but they haven't really helped, but I went to a different clinic today. The guy who runs it is a friend of Ben's family and knows me, so he made sure I got the right stuff. I took the medicine just once and I can already feel my lungs clearing out. 

So....yeah, I haven't been feeling up to writing much. 

I went to a couple of little, little places in some remote areas. The first place I went was called 虎洞, or Tiger Cave.....that's probably the most badass name in the history of naming towns. The people I stayed with were wonderful and happy hosts. It's a beautiful place - surrounded by mountains with a river running beside the town and its roughly 2,000 people.

As far as I know, no other foreigner has been to that little town. Understandably, my visit caused quite a stir. As I sat in this one lady's one-room house, people (especially kids) would come by, look through the open door, say "Wow, there really IS a foreigner here......" and then leave......hahaha wow. 

Visit one house, leave, visit another house, leave, visit another house, and the cycle continues. It was really exhausting day.

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The next day, I went to the real deal. I went to my friend Benjamin's birthplace - the remote mountain terraces of Gansu. It was a truly amazing place - it is said that the mountains enrich the body and mind and produce genius and well-disciplined people, and it's hard to disagree. The fresh, cool mountain air was so refreshing and the views were nothing short of truly awesome. A tranquil place. Really and truly awesome. 

And yet, as you take in the view, you realize that all of this beauty is the result of lives of hard and long labor in the fields. When you talk about people "working in the fields," this is it. One must be hard-working, disciplined, and committed to the work at hand. No one is lazy here, although it seems like the perfect place to be lazy. The weather is only the slightest bit hot, with a breeze most of the time, and the caves that the families live in are cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

As you take a walk through the wheat fields, the apricot orchards, the potato fields, you can hear the braying of the family donkeys and the bleating of the lambs. One of the donkeys developed a funny attachment to me - he was my buddy haha. 

Since me, Ben, Elena, and Ben's brother were coming, a special treat was offered to us. One of Ben's uncles killed a lamb and cooked it for our dinner - fresh lamb cannot be beat, although they insisted I be present when it was killed. They wanted ME to kill it, but I don't have that kind of constitution. Watching and listening was bad enough. There was also some fish to be eaten. Ben's grandma said it was "a new spring festival" because we were having two kinds of meat at dinner. 

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I'm going to revisit this, but I've GOT to start washing some clothes and go to bed.

Later!

6-23: The Big Bang Theory

"Hey Austin, let's go to the cafeteria and get some beef noodles."

hahaha I finally saw my buddy Ryan the other day - this is his most famous line. He was in a movie that me and my friends made together, and that line interrupts someone else trying to speak to me in broken English. 

We had a lot of laughs about that, and many other things.

One thing that surprised me was that, out of all the things Chinese college students could attach themselves to from the American media, "The Big Bang Theory" seems to be the most prevalent of them.  Me and my buddies literally talked about the Big Bang Theory on and off for hours, because they love it so much and because I love it so much - it has become an international show, apparently.

"Remember when Amy got that painting for Penny?"

"Remember when Leonard proposed to Penny in bed?"

"[Knock knock knock] Penny. [Knock knock knock] Pennny. [Knock knock knock] Penny."

"Did you see the latest one when Howard was about to go into space?"

"Was that REALLY Stephen Hawking in that episode?"

Hahaha it was really funny, and an unexpected pleasure!

"The Big Bang Theory" aside, we all had a lot of laughs. Me and my buddies went to Lanzhou University of Technology's West Campus to meet up with people, play some pool, get some bubble tea, check out the new 3D movie theater on campus. Yes. 3D movies. On Campus. Dude.

Awesome.

The only downside of the day was the sandstorm and the rain, but hey - it didn't ruin our friendship or anything, it just kind of cramped our style.

It really was a perfect day - one of those where you just spend time with people you love to hang out with, have a few laughs, and just waste the day away. You won't remember the details, but the feelings you all shared will be there, and the ease of conversation and laughter will not soon be forgotten. 

It was a homecoming, of sorts, and I can only hope that the feeling will be present in my upcoming job at Lanzhou Jiaotong University.

I'll talk about that soon, I promise!

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Feel free to comment or to subscribe to my blog - it's totally free and no sign-up and I would love to hear from you!

HyperSmash.com

"Oh....You're THAT Austin!"

So, a couple of days ago, me, Robert, Janson, and other friends ran into another American, his wife, and his very young daughter near the front of L.U.T. (Lanzhou University of Technology, my old school) - what are the odds, right? Me, Robert, and three other Americans just running into each other! Weird......

Anyway, we introduced ourselves, and were talking about the school. I said something like, "Yeah, last year when I was studying here.......(I forget)."

He looked at me, tilted his head, and said, "Wait, you said your name was Austin, right?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, you're THAT Austin! People around here are always asking me if I know you and how you're doing, but I had no idea who you were till now."

"..........really? Wow, I wonder what these crazy Chinese people have been saying about me hahaha."

"It's all good stuff, don't worry."

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It was really flattering to hear that people were still talking about me and remembered me, but I also kind of had that feeling like, "Yeah, they'd BETTER remember me - I had so many friends!!"

I don't know, it was just a funny and nice moment.

It's been great meeting all my old friends and going to all the old places. I've been seeing a lot of foreigners around here - it's crazy!! L.U.T. and Lanzhou seem to have acquired a lot more diversity!

I've been having a great time, but I've been exhausted most of the time, honestly. Walking all around everywhere, the sun rising at about 5am, and healthy food has all been the perfect storm of being tired hahaha.

I got used to it eventually last year, but I haven't quite gotten there yet haha.

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Well, anyway, that's about all I can think of at the moment...I guess I'll see you guys later! I won't be able to put up photos or videos until I get back in July, sorry about that :(

Bye!

WC Bob (I'm Sorry, Man)

I'm sorry to have to tell this story, but it's way too funny to keep secret anymore. I do feel bad about this, though.

Okay, so when I was in Lanzhou, I met a whole lot of people. Of course I did, China's got a ton of people, and since I was Lanzhou University of Technology's first-ever exchange student, I got a lot of attention, right? Yeah.

So, anyway, I met a bunch of dudes who were going to study abroad the next year - among them Janson and Freddy, who became my bandmates and my best friends while I was over there.

I also met Bob.

Bob was also going to study at NEIU - I didn't know him that well, and I still don't, but I liked him and still like him. Occasionally, I will still talk to him.

When I first met him, it was on L.U.T.'s West Campus, because that's where he lived. We talked, exchanged numbers, and I put him in my phone as "WC Bob" - short for "West Campus Bob", because I already had a "Bob" in my phone.

Now, here's where things get a little complicated. China has a couple of hundred years' worth of history in dealing extensively with Europeans, mainly the British and Germans. Even now, there are traces of this influence all over the country, but none more odd than the WC sign.

The WC sign is known as representative of one thing: the bathroom - public bathrooms, more often than not. It took me a long time and a lot of asking before I found out WC stood for "Water Closet," a mostly British term.

No doubt, you can see where this is going.

I had never connected the name in my phone and the sign on the streets as being the same. They were always locked away in my brain as two different things, of course. WC Bob is a cool dude, and the WC is where I go to the bathroom. I never even thought about the fact that it could be a point of embarrassment for Bob.

A few months had gone by, and I was in Guangzhou (Canton, for you historians and old-timers haha) with Bob and some of the other L.U.T. students, when we were trying to find out what Bob was up to.

Somebody's phone was dead, and I said, "Use mine, he's under WC Bob."




................................"What?"

"WC Bob. West Campus Bob - that's where he lives, right?"

................................."Dude, WC is the toilet."

And wouldn't you know it, Bob walked in right then. Perfect timing.

"HEY, WC Bob!!! We were trying to find you!" said the other guys.

He was really confused, and once the whole story emerged, both of us were quite embarrassed - me because of my ignorance, and Bob because of his newly-found nickname. I believe it's been forgotten, but just in case it hasn't, I want to take this moment and tell Bob that I'm sorry. That was my bad, dude, and I know they gave you crap about it for a little while.

Sorry, dude.

And that's the story of Bob "WC" ****, a true tale of cultural ignorance, loss of face, and forgetfulness.

My Favorite Pictures: Part 3

Another day of pictures, hopefully you like them! According to the views I've been getting, it seems to be a good thing :) As usual, click to enlarge and feel free to subscribe!

This is the Lanzhou University of Technology's kindergarten, where the young children of the LUT teachers go to school. This institution is talked about in my thesis, so I took a picture for posterity.

Lanzhou University of Technology during a February snow.

Lanzhou....my wonderful home for six months.

These guys are my brothers. I spent so much time with them that they became my family. This was a screen pic I took from a movie we all made together called "Struggle Story," which I am going to post a link to at some point. It is about the struggles four Chinese students face in trying to fulfill their dreams - a very relevant topic for a movie in China. The words at the bottom come from a song 我是一只小小鸟, "I am a Small, Small Bird", which is about someone who, like a small bird, wants to fly high, but cannot.  I miss these guys.

Lanzhou University of Technology's West Campus lake

Lanzhou University of Technology's West Campus entrance. Although I lived on their main campus, I spent nearly every weekend of the semester at this campus because the students at this campus are freshmen and sophomores and are generally more friendly and open than those on the main campus. No offense to the main campus. 

Typical market street just off the West Campus

People just selling their stuff - shops or just putting their fruit/veggies on a blanket on the street.

Fresh, fresh, fresh. Most Americans can only dream of this kind of fresh unless they regularly go to Farmer's Markets

A ruined walkway at the Old Summer Palace. No matter how grand and elaborate a place is, the onward march of time cannot be halted.

The Summer Palace, built around Kunming Lake in Beijing, is a maze of courtyards and walkways in the area immediately adjacent the lake. It is really neat, but you get to wondering, "Where the heck is the end of this thing?"

This is 苏州街, or Suzhou (Sue-Joe) street. It is part of the Summer Palace tour and is kind of like Venice :D

The street itself is a little disappointing. Sure, it is really cool to walk along the winding and water-lined street, but all of the places on the street are shops designed to get foreigners to spend too much money. Sure, there are cool things which you can only buy in China, such as authentic traditional instruments, authentic tailored silk clothes, special kinds of tea, etc., but I don't like to fall into those tourist traps, so I was a little disappointed.

It really is a beautiful street, isn't it?

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That is the end of today's post - tomorrow I will do something different. Stick around! If you've got any comments/questions/anything, feel free to leave one at the bottom! Also, feel free to subscribe if you're interested!

Two New Videos! Mountains and Laundry!

Got two new videos for you today! The first is from my visit with Benjamin Xi to Lanzhou's Bai Ta Shan, or White Tower Mountain.



That was a very good day and it was nice just to get off campus with a couple of buddies and do something fun. By that time in my trip (May), I was really itching to get out of the classroom and out of the campus and try new things. This was one of many trips to that area and I always thoroughly enjoyed myself around the Yellow River.

The area around the Yellow River in Lanzhou is very nice. There are a lot of very small places to eat along the sidewalk and lots of places to buy drinks and just chill. The weather in Lanzhou is simply perfect during pretty much the entire summer, so there are always a lot of people just kind of lounging about and hanging with their friends, skipping rocks on the river or playing with their dogs or flying kites - it really is a great time. Being a foreigner, every time I went down there by myself, I always got involved in a long conversation (in Chinese, of course) with the locals. They'd always be fairly lengthy, maybe an hour or so, but by the time I left, my brain was exhausted, yet very gratified by my progress.

This next video is somewhat less exciting, but it was a big part of my life in China.


Yep, I made a video about washing clothes and buying stuff at the market. The whole time I was in China, I washed my clothes by hand. Hot or cold water, adding my detergent, washing, rinsing, all of it in a little tub/basin, I washed my clothes every week. Laundry day really was laundry DAY.  After I got coat-hangers and was able to wash and hang up more clothes, laundry day became a dreaded day. At the beginning it was new and refreshing to have to work for my clean clothes, but after two or three months, the refreshment gave way to that everyday drag. Life goes on.


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Some Pictures

Sorry that I haven't put up any pictures, it's been really hard with my internet. I've managed to get a few up on this post, but not a lot. 

The past couple of days have sucked - I've been really sick. I'm feeling better now, but definitely still sick. I'm at about 80% now, maybe 85%. The Qing Ming holiday in Xi'an was great, but it was really nice to be back in Lanzhou - in a familiar place. Some of the trees are getting green, which is actually pretty comforting. In Xi'an, there were a ton of green plants and bright colors, which cheered me up considerably when all I had seen in Lanzhou was brown and grey. I'll be back soon with more pictures, deal?

This is on my first visit to the Western Campus of LUT - on the left is Freddy and on the right laughing is Ethan. They're good friends of mine.

This is another venture to the West Campus - from left to right is Freddy, Jim Green, Janson (peace), William, and Danny. I met a lot of people that day!

The lake on the West Campus - it's pretty cool!

Me at the Gansu Provincial Museum - lots of cool Buddhist sculptures and art. In Gansu and Shaanxi, the historic Buddhist influence is really obvious.

Left/Right - Huan, Jing, Juan - they took me to the Gansu Museum, I really appreciate it and had a great time! Behind us are Buddhist prayer wheels, which are spun while reciting the chants on the bottom.

The Bell Tower in Xi'an - it's pretty much the picture you always see whenever you Google Xi'an.

This is the fountain in front of the Da Yan Ta in Xi'an. I've heard it's the biggest fountain in Asia - and I'm not surprised. It's at least 300 yards long and 100 yards across - although it's probably bigger. There is a really cool fountain show every day at noon that we got to see