Freaky Friday

Last night I came home late and guess what happened?  My key breaks in my lock.  EEgads!  It's 11:30pm.  I walk back to the front gate where the guards are and show them my broken key.  One of them takes it and 20 minutes later returns with a locksmith riding his motorbike.  We go to my floor and the locksmith struggles with the lock.  The lock is not budging.  Meanwhile random guards keep coming up on the elevator.  At one point there were 13 Chinese guys in uniform standing in my hallway jabbering in Chinese.  I know it woke up everyone on my floor.  It was so loud.  One of my neighbors, Jonny, came out.  He speaks some English and started translating for me so I could know what was going on.  Finally 2 1/2 hours later after waking up the building managers and my landlord, who has a key, we were able to open my door.  I think I'll make some copies of this key just in case.

Guanzho Wild Animal Park

I took my students to the zoo today.  My school encourages taking students on field trips and they pay for it so I thought we'd go to the zoo.  The children loved the zoo.  It was so much fun to run around the park, looking at animals, seeing the wonder and amazement in their eyes.  My favorite part was seeing them feed the Giraffes.  They went crazy.  We saw three shows, the Monkey show, White Tiger Show, and the Panda Show.  At the Panda show we saw the famous Chinese Mask artists, who flip masks in the blink of an eye.  My para, Miss Nancy, told me when we returned back to the school that the children were more wild than the wild animals.  Yes they are, but I love my wild animals.

Chinese Folk Cultural Villages

I spent this weekend in Shekou with some fellow teachers.  A group of teachers went to an artist village, where you can buy all kinds of art.  Imitations of the Mona Lisa, Vango, Monet, etc.  I found a small picture of Venice and a street in Paris that I liked.  The Chinese are great at imitating famous art.  

Later that day Dasha and I went to the Chinese Folk Cultural Villages.  This is a Chinese Cultural Disneyland.  Every unique and interesting sight in China is in this village only in miniature form or large scale replicas that you can walk into.  One picture is of a Chinese water wheel.   Another is of the Lamasery in Tibet.  And the pile of stones commemorates a battle, each stone representing someone who died.  There are so many giant Buddha's carved in stone.  I didn't realize these sights were in China I thought they were in India. Saw some amazing acrobats and musicians.

We arrived later in the day and didn't get to go through everything.  As we were walking around the miniature sights in China it started to get too dark to see so we went to a show called Dancing with the Dragon and the Phoenix.  This was the most amazing show I've ever seen.  It was slash broadway musical/opera, Las Vegas type show, and historical fantasy.  The stage was constantly moving.  The costumes were beautiful.  I didn't fully understand what it was about, but it was pretty cool.  At one point some Mongolian horse riders came charging across the stage fighting and doing horse tricks.  We both decided to return to the Cultural Villages on another day.  There was too much to see in the couple hours we had.

The next day we met some friends from Dongguan for a multicultural fellowship in Shekou. Motet, the Philipino decided to call our group the United Nations, because we had so many different countries together; England, U.S., China, Russia, Philipines.  I love being surrounding by so many people groups and ethnicities.  I learn so much about myself, God and the world.  The first picture is our United Nations gang.

Bus Riding

The other day I decided to get on a bus and see where it would take me.  A new bus stop started in front of my apartment complex.  I was really curious to see if it would take me into downtown Dongguan.  I'm feeling more confident about getting around and finding my way home if I get lost.  If I get lost, then I catch a taxi home to Jaing nan ya Zhu.  It was fun to get on a bus and not know where I would end up.  It did take me to the downtown area, which is where my school is.  So this week I've been taking the bus into work instead of the taxi.  I must say it is so much more relaxing than the taxi and I feel safer in a big bus.  It gives me time to think and pray.  The pictures are of the downtown area that was decorated for the October National holiday.

Cultural Girl's Night Out

This weekend I spent with my co-workers from school.  Working at an International school allows me to interact with not only students from all over the world, but teachers.  The group of girls I spent the weekend with are from the Philipines, India, and Russia.  We ate at this Thai restaurant that had live dancers.  The live dancers appear to be woman, but are actually men.  It was Dasha's birthday and we found ourselves dancing to the song Dancing Queen with some drag queens.  

Later that night we did facials, satin hands, and satin lips with Mary Kay stuff I had brought with me from America.  They had fun being goofy.  The girl from Russia and India made chocolate cottage cheese.  I learned how to make cottage cheese.  It's pretty easy.  You boil milk and add sugar and vinegar until the milk curdles.

The next day I went to my first spa ever.  It was incredible.  If people come visit me in China I know where we can get amazing spa treatment for a great price.

Fried Beach

I went camping in China and swam in the South China Sea in Zhuhai.  It was so much fun.  We camped at this place called Fried beach.  Camping in China is very different than in America.  You don't have to bring any camping stuff, because everything you need you can rent at the location for super cheap.  The beach was scattered with tents and people.  People were up late walking on the beach, lighting fireworks, sitting around barbeque grills.  There were some university students that started a camp fire so we joined them, unfortunately some angry person came and started yelling at the students for having a fire, complaining about the pollution one little fire was creating and what would the foreigners think.  I thought that was pretty funny and told the students not to feel bad about creating a fire it had brought them new friends.

The beach was so beautiful.  When we arrived all the Chinese people were swimming in this one area.  I thought that was strange, because it was a large beach and there was so much room for swimming.  My group got into the water far away from the massive crowd of people.  As we were enjoying the waves I heard this whistle, whistle, whistle.  Some guard came over and was whistling at us, because we were not in the contained swimming area.  So I obliged and the other Chinese people who followed me in water obliged.  But I felt a little sad.  Here is this beautiful ocean, which to me is so powerful and freeing, and people must have control over the fun and freedom the natural beauty offers.  I still enjoyed the waves in the contained area, but I thought these people are way too obliging and obedient.

Chinese National Holiday

This week is the Chinese National Holiday.  It is like fourth of July in America accept you get a whole week off rather than one day.  China has officially been a communist country for 59 years.  This is what they are supposedly celebrating this week.  I asked the locals what they do and it seems to be a week of travel.  This makes it difficult to purchase train tickets and travel yourself.  My plans for this week keep evolving.  I think the latest plans are to travel to Zhuhai on the coast by bus and take a boat out to an island.  

As I was walking down the Nanchen Walking street, close to where I live Sunday afternoon, I was wondering why it was so crazy.  I felt like I was at a carnival.  It was because of the holiday.  All these booths were set up selling food, socks, various trinkets.  The people selling food were pretty crazy.  They had music blasting and some were dressed in costumes dancing trying to get people to buy their food.  I kept thinking they must be so hot by the food in costumes jumping up and down.   

The Bike Guard

I used to think that people would leave their bikes in large piles all over.  Then I realized someone guards the bikes.  Today as I biked to my local grocery store I noticed this pen of bikes and a man standing guard.  I thought I had to pay him to watch my bike, but he did it for free.  It must be a service the grocery store provides.  He was very happy to get his picture taken.