Stuck in Wuhan.....again!!!

Well, yesterday I posted that I would be off, finally beginning my travels, but I should've known better....I'm still in Wuhan!! China always finds a way to keep me here! Although, it's probably a better idea because it gives me more time to say goodbye to friends, clean, pack, decide my trip! Since university students are pretty much done for the summer holiday, it's really difficult to get a train ticket. Hence being stuck here. Next week, July 3rd to be exact, I will be off to Shanghai with my roommate Erin and her father. After that, I'm not too sure! I will definitely be travelling to some of my students hometowns, they have welcomed me with open arms. Definite stops during my travels will be Xi'an (terracotta army) Shaolin Si (the temple where Kung Fu originated), Chengdu in Sichuan province (to eat some good food...the spiciest food in China, and to see some Pandas, maybe climb a mountain), Yunnan province (Dali most importantly, from what I've heard/seen it's a good spot, old villages, cool people), Guilin and Yangshuo (a backpacker stop, probably will stay for a couple weeks there 'cause I've heard if you give an hour of English lessons everyday you can have free accomodations) and then maybe Hainan Island, which is the "Hawaii" of China. And of course Hong Kong and Macau, some other smaller cities inbetween, and Beijing will be my last stop. It's been a great 5 months here at Hubei University of Technology... I've had some good and bad experiences living in this communist country... my students have made it all worth it in the end! Here are some pictures of some of them below:

Frente and Amy



Ada, Letitia, Alice and Joy
Sky, Raoul, Tim, and Max



Apple, Eric, and Milk
Katherine and Sophia



Samson, in his usual pose....sleeping!


Chris and Jamine, doing their homework assignment a movie skit...they chose Titantic
Renee and McGrady chose The Graduate

Jerry, Mary , and Ben

Noyes (...I rarely see Chinese people wearing sunglasses, my students were fascinated with mine!)

Teacher Amy

Just a short blog to update and say my teaching is pretty much over, I'll miss my students a lot! I attempted to upload some pictures of them, and also of my interesting trip to the zoo here in Wuhan, but the connection of course is not so good. It is pouring rain here today, seems to affect the internet. But the rain doesn't stop a party here, about an hour ago they were setting off fireworks in the pouring rain! Ohh, and there go some more right now! I guess they just like the big bang moreso than the lights. Tomorrow I set off for Qingdao (a beer town on the coast between Beijing and Shanghai) with a Thai friend, for a few days, then back to Wuhan to finish up with my marks, and my apartment, and then off to Shanghai with my roommate Erin and her dad, then who knows where!

HAPPY ...

HAPPY:

...birthday to my oldest brother Teeps/Bunny/Rob! (June 3)
...Children's Day! (June 1)
...Dragon Boat Festival! (May 31)

For you brother, Lydia wrote 'happy birthday' in Chinese, and these are her classmates wishing you a happy birthday!


In China, they celebrate anything and everything. No one really knows the importance or reasoning for children's day, no one really knows what happens either, but my guess is that it gives them another reason to light fireworks, they LOVE fireworks!

Also, dragon boat festival seems to be recognized but not really celebrated, other than the fact that you must eat glutinous rice wrapped in a banana leaf on this day. It has something to do with bringing you prosperity and wealth....not too sure how that relates to a dragon boat. My student, Autumn, brought me this lovely treat to class on Wednesday and it just tasted like a triangle shaped ball (oxymoron?) of sticky rice with some meat chunks in it.

In Wuhan, however, they do have dragon boat races, and they've been going on all week. Today, myself, my roommate Erin and our Chinese friend Forrest went to East Lake to watch the Dragon Boat races. I was looking forward to this Chinese experience to see how it compared to the races in Stratford, but it started to rain and the wind became too strong so the lake waters were too choppy for the races :( However, since we were already there, we rented a bicycle built for 3 and rode around the lake and between the islands and along the bridges for a couple of hours. Along the way we took some interesting pictures! Check them out...

Our friend Forrest and our bike! There are interesting statues throughout the park, here are just a couple of our favs:

Wuhan University (where the cherry blossoms are) through the willow trees, across the lake.

Last night we went out for hot pot....always a fun and delicious dining experience. We ate at Kaiwei beer house last night, which is like a hot pot buffet. Each person gets there own pot of boiling liquid (I think it's some sort of broth) that sits over top of a flame. From the buffet, you can get things like crab, lamb, a variety of bird's eggs, blood tofu, veggies (Chinese ones, nothing like carrots or brocoli), and other delectable things. All the food is raw, then you cook it up in your pot and voila! A feast!

My dining company last night, Helen and Raoul from Wuhan, Alex and Mike from Canada, and Pin from Thailand.

This is a picture of Helen's hot pot after she was finished eating. Helen is Chinese so this is what a hot pot meal should look like.

This is a picture of Mike's hot pot, which is the complete opposite of Helen's and of course, being Canadian, includes beer.


ps....thinking my friend Daisy had ordered a nice beef and green pepper dish for lunch on Friday, I quickly dug in, only to soon realize I was in fact eating pig liver. ...add it to the list!