Pittsburg B-B-Q in Hojie October 4, 2009

My Chinese neighbor invited me to a friends house for dinner.  Yes the Chinese have houses.  Sometimes I forget this amid the sprawl of skyscraper apartments.  But the wealthy have homes.  We drove to Hojie, a neighboring city to Dongguan.  I didn’t know it was going to be a B-B-Q, but it was fantastic.  So many delicious hot dogs and ribs.  I felt like I was back in America.  The man of the house was an American from Pittsburg, who had been in China for 15 years.  So many families came over.  So many different languages were spoken at the B-B-Q, Chinese, German, French, Thai, English, Indian.  It was fun to see all the children running around, white children, mixed races of children, playing, speaking Mandarine.  Very cool and very fun!  On the way home my poor neighbor ran out of gas in the middle of the road-very dangerous in China.  She called some friends to help.  Now I can say I’ve run out of gas in China.  hahaha

Mid Autumn Festival October 3, 2009

In China the next big holiday celebrated besides Chinese New Year is the Midautumn Festival.  It takes place during the full moon in October.  People give each other moon cakes all the way leading up to the full moon.  My Chinese neighbor invited me over on the night of the full moon for a dinner, tea and mooncakes.  We watched CCTV’s special performance.  The Chinese love musical performances and dancing.  It’s really neat to see a country united for special performances for their special holidays.  Traditional songs are sung.  One interesting performance I saw was a combining of Chinese opera singing with modern pop singing; quite different and unique.  So many fireworks went off it was beautiful.  The Chinese sure know how to put on a fireworks display.  All the songs were about the moon, poetry about the moon, how it unites people and lovers.  That night under the full moon I saw lots of floating lanterns in the sky.  I bought myself a wishing lantern and lit it under the full moon and watched it float away.  It’s very magical.

The Coconut Bar and Beach

The last day the sun came out so gorgeously and graced the island in a lovely, romantic glow.  The beach in front of our hotel was still off limits for swimming.  I jumped in, but agot whistled at by some guard.  So I walked a little ways down the beach where other Chinese were swimming.  The water was so warm and the waves were perfect for body surfing.  It reminded me of my summers as a child on the California beaches.  After the typhoon so many shells and coral had been washed ashore that I was able to collect several beautiful pieces. 

 

The three of us were able to eat dinner out on the beach at the Coconut Bar, which was part of the hotel.  Of course I can’t eat coconut-I die.  So I’ve learned how to very dramatically express this to people who I order from.  Anyways I didn’t drink any coconut, though it would have been nice.  But I sat at this bar sipping a Corona watching the sunset, feeling like I was in some James Bond movie.  Now I’ve experienced a James Bond moment.  haha

Philipino Band

So one night my Philipino teacher friend and I set out all decked to the nines for dinner near the Crown Plaza at Yaloong Bay for dinner and shopping.  As we were walking we ran across some live music-a Philipino band.  My friend was like, “oh they are philipinos I can tell,” and then the lead singer looks at us and points and says, “hey philipino.”  We stayed and listened.  I danced crazy while my friend just watched.  Some Russians started dancing too and I danced with them.  I had fun and tried so hard to get my friend to dance, but we must all keep up appearances sometimes.  Yet I say who cares let loose sometimes and be fancy free.  I’ve learned this from my family.  Thank you crazy family. Celebrate life while you can especially in a typhoon. Hahaha

Butterfly Park

One thing I did on Hainan was rent a bike and bike around Yaloong Bay.  I found the Butterfly Park, which I really wanted to see.  It was pretty rainy from the typhoon so not too many butterflies were flying around, but it was still neat to walk around the park.  I saw a strange spikey turtle that was supposed to be 1,000 years old.  Don’t know if it was true or not.  It was said to be a lucky turtle.

Hainan Island

For my holiday in October I went to Hainan Island.  My first tropical island.  I stayed in the Holiday Inn Resort on the beach.  It was so nice and so amazing.  Ironically there was a typhoon while I was there.  So for two days I had to stay in the hotel and off the beach.  But the hotel had nice things to do like an exercise room and a spa.  I traveled with two other teachers.  We had fun inspite of typhoons and I would definently go back to Hainan.

 

Hong Kong is Way Cooler than I Thought

So I'm in Hong Kong for the second time in my life and have discovered that it is a very cool city.  I have to exit every 60 days, because of my visa.  So I came to HK this weekend with another teacher.  We walked around Kowloon area then took a ferry across the bay to HK Island.  She wanted to spend the night so we found the Hong Kong Hostel and booked a room, which is in Causeway Bay overlooking the water and the sailboats.  It's so pretty.  The subway is a fantastic way to get around, so fast and easy to use.  I really wish more cities in America would have subway systems.  At night the streets are bugeoning with people.  So many people in HK.  It feels like New York City.  We took the tram up to the Peak that overlooks HK.  It is so beautiful at night.  Anyways I'm excited to re-discover HK and realize that I do like it.  I look forward to exiting in another 60 days here.  Now that I'm in HK I will update my blog for friends and family to know what has been happening these past weeks while I've been on the mainland.