Jobs and such

It was a good, if energetic Monday. For some unknown reason, the students were a bit more enthusiastic than normal. One class was so chatty that I had to ask a student to leave. 


I never cease to be amazed by what topics cause the students to almost riot from excitement. This week’s topic? Jobs and job interview tips. We discuss what kinds of jobs the students would like to have, what types of questions interviewers might ask, if a job is good for happiness or money (or both), listen to CCR’s version of Proud Mary, do an activity where the students must come up with jobs that start with every letter of the alphabet (architect, banker, cook, etc.), and watch a short video about interview tips. 


Though it was a bit of a challenge to keep the students’ energy flowing in a positive direction, I was happy to discover that they enjoyed the week’s topic. Maybe they like the practicality of the lesson. I’m interested to see how the rest of the sessions play out. 

The truth about banquets

It was another relaxing weekend, until around 4:50 PM this afternoon, but I’ll explain that in a bit. On Saturday, we woke up at around 8:00 AM, got ready for the day, had a successful tutoring session, did the week’s shopping, cleaned the bathroom, and enjoyed some downtime. Today was essentially a repeat of yesterday, except I finally finished The Memoirs of Cleopatra, which was an interesting, if lengthy, novel. 


So what happened at 4:50 PM to change our day’s course? Jean-Jacques received a phone call from a Chinese friend who invited us to dinner at 6:00 PM. (Note to reader: As I am writing this, I realize that I am an ungrateful person who shouldn’t be complaining. In the future, when I smell like roses again, and I can breath without feeling like my lungs are charred, I will try to be a better person. I promise.)

Ah, The Chinese Banquet. It’s an experience that every westerner who visits China must have, though as you’re enduring the two-hour-plus cultural exchange, you wish you were comfortably back in the apartment eating a melted cheese sandwich. I dislike every banquet I attend, but after the event I’m satisfied, pleased, happy I went because I learn something new. No, I don’t always enjoy the exotic food, suffocating plumes of cigarette smoke, being paraded around like a stuffed poodle (I’ve gotta pay for my dinner somehow...), or the custom of competitive drinking, but the conversation that I can understand (and participate in) usually provides me with some fascinating new insight into Chinese culture, so the pain is worth it in the end. 

What did I learn tonight? Chinese executives consider drinking to be an important part of a business negotiation. If someone is sober, it can be difficult to trust him or her, so that’s why business is done over a meal with drinking. 


It’s late, sleep calls, and I need to find a new book to read. ¡Adiós!


P.S. The in-heat howling cats are starting to make me sad. I don't want to be sad. I want the kitties to be happy like Pickles and Ninja. Maybe the rain will quiet them for a little while.

Movies and more

What a blustery night! The wind is rattling our windows and I can hear a number of creaks and crashes outside. It’s perfect weather for sitting inside, watching a terrible movie, and drinking tea. I’m not quite sure where spring went...


I had a great end to my school week. I taught two classes and showed the end of Emperor’s New Groove and start of Cars to seven students during my “Movie Lunch Friday”. Hopefully, the activity will become more popular, but if not, I still think the small group benefited from the experience. They seemed to enjoy the movies and understand them quite well. I was impressed.


They wanted me to play High School Musical 3, but I didn’t. I explained that I had “lost” my copy of it. My own experience of watching movies to learn a language taught me that to remain interested in a plot, it’s important to have a balance of conversation and “seeable” action. The trouble with High School Musical is that many of the jokes aren’t transferable to Chinese culture and the actors speak too quickly for the students to follow the story. However, after watching The Emperor’s New Groove, the students could easily explain the plot because they were able to visually keep up with the action. Plus, the humor was universal.


I spent most of the afternoon fiddling with Photoshop Elements, reading the manual for my camera, and taking pictures of Jean-Jacques. We made a delicious veggie stir fry for dinner and watched another terrible movie. (We make an effort to see the worst movies ever created since it’s practically impossible to find worthwhile films these days.)


Last night, at 10:30 PM, as we were about to turn out the lights to sleep, a series of fireworks exploded on the street below our apartment. Our window was closed, but it was so loud that we had to cover our ears. We think that a neighbor’s son got married yesterday and that the fireworks were set off at two different times during the day for good luck (one time before he left for the wedding and one time after the ceremony). 


I heard a weird noise in an apartment on the third floor and was terrified by the experience. Check out Jean-Jacques’ blog for the full story.


During the warm-up for one class, a student had “finished” answering the questions long before any of his peers. I was a bit suspicious and said, “Wow. You wrote fast!” 
The male student, nodded, while looking down at his paper.


(During my time teaching in Anqing, I have learned that Chinese students are horrible at lying or acting slick when they know they’ve done something wrong. This kid’s behavior showed me that he was obviously hiding something. I ran with my hunch.)


Me: You obviously didn’t write this.
The student looked at me with wide eyes.
Me: You used someone else’s warm-up.
The student, looking down, nodded.
Me: I’m pretty smart, you see. I was once a student so I know what you do. 
The student started giggling with his friends. He was obviously embarrassed.
Me: Do you think I’m so stupid that I won’t know you cheated when everyone else isn’t close to finishing yet? Get writing.


The student didn’t respond. He was so riled up (and still giggling with his friends) that I had to remind him five minutes later that he needed to calm down or else I would ask him to leave the room. 


Ah, students. Oh how you entertain me! Thanks for making my life so enjoyable.


Here are Friday’s pictures. Jean-Jacques is a handsome model, isn’t he?

Have a happy weekend!

"That class has devil eyes!"

If I could magically erase the last period of today, I would be pleased. I’ve often had problems with the group of students I teach from 4:40-5:30PM on Thursdays (as I’ve mentioned in a number of previous blog posts), but their behavior was so awful today that I almost dismissed the lot of them and cancelled class. I think their negative attitude stems from too much stress, a lack of interest in my class, an overbearing head teacher, and many other factors. I am sympathetic to their plight, but I still have to teach the class. 


I practically had to physically remove two students from the classroom because they refused to follow directions. (I had to scoot one chair -- with a student in it -- out from behind a desk because the two boys weren’t moving and I needed to illustrate that I was serious when I told them to leave the room.) 


The situation will change soon. It must, or else I’ll be sent one of two places -- a mental institution, or a Chinese jail. I’m currently devising a strategy, so I’ll let you know when I put it into practice.


Other than that, it was a great day. Here’s a cute story to balance the negative one about “hell class”:


Me, to a female student: How was your vacation?
Student: Terrible!
Me: Oh, I’m sorry! Why was it terrible?
Student: Because I missed you! (She then was so embarrassed that she covered her mouth with her hand and started giggling.)


See, my Chinese students can be extremely sweet, too. Truthfully, most of them are wonderful, and it’s only about 5% of them that frustrate me. Isn’t it sad how easily the 5% overshadow the 95%?


Here are my photos from the day. Somehow “laundry” became the theme. I’m not sure how that happened...

A Wonderful Wednesday

Maybe the spring weather is affecting my brain, but I had a spectacular day. I often enjoy Wednesdays because my schedule is “clustered” and all of my classes are back-to-back (with a lunch to separate the first half from the second). However, I’m most happy because I’m able to end the school day at 3:45 PM, instead of the normal time of 5:30 PM. 


Perhaps successful classes are the cause of my contented state, or maybe it’s the fact that I’m not perpetually feeling frozen. 


I do have a humorous story from the day that I’m sure you will all enjoy. As many of you may already know, I’m not a spelling wizard. Most of the time I write words correctly, but I often have difficulties figuring out the correct way to spell them. (I promise that all this background information will serve a purpose, just be patient.)


During the mad libs section of the lesson, I asked one class for an adjective so I could demonstrate how a mad lib works. One of the students proudly shouted out, “Neurotic”.  (Until this point, I’d been given answers like “ugly”, “romantic”, “beautiful”, or words that are easily spelled.) I pondered the word for a moment, trying to figure out the spelling, and then bravely started writing. Quickly, I realized that I would need a bit of assistance because I wasn’t going to get it right on my first attempt. I then asked the students for help and they also had a difficult time. I think I eventually got it correct, but I honestly don’t remember. 


Interestingly enough, the words for the rest of the mad lib activity were “ugly”, “sun”, “romantic”, etc. (Here's my personal analysis of the situation: the students felt so bad that I lost “face” during the lesson that they made an effort to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again. They like me and want me to succeed, not flounder in front of them. Although I felt a bit stupid for the goof-up, I was heartened by their response.)


It was another night of Muslim Noodle Shop food for dinner. The restaurant is excellent because it has pictures on the menu, all the dishes contain a number and variety of vegetables, and there are many choices from which we can select. This all adds up to a perfect place for us to frequent (and we do with our plastic carryout containers in hand). 


Here are today’s pictures:

Hugs to all!

Snore!

ZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZZ! It’s only nine o’clock this evening and I’m about to fall asleep as I’m typing this entry. I don’t know why I’m tired, but I did use up a considerable amount of energy trying to keep students interested in learning about Valentine’s Day. 


Classes went smoothly and nothing terribly exciting occurred. We ate grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, I got dinner from Muslim Noodle Shop, and we watched the new episode of The Bachelor. 


Since I’m trying to become a better photographer, I’m playing around with my camera and Photoshop Elements more. My goal is to take one to three “keepers” a day. Here are the two from today:

I’d better head to bed before I can’t....

Back in the saddle

Yay for spring! I woke up today, and was startled to discover that winter has fled and that his fair-headed sister has taken control of the world. Thank goodness. I was about to die from hypothermia.


I returned to the classroom at 2:00 this afternoon and I’m thrilled to be back. My first class on Mondays is often a snoozer (I think they’re still recovering from their lunchtime nap), and today was no different, but I did the best I could to energize them. I’ll admit, I was fighting a number of battles -- first day back from break, warm weather outside, I’m teaching a “fluff class” and the pressure for students is starting to build, etc. However, I know not to take it personally, and there are plenty of students who do enjoy my class.
The second period of the day was far more enjoyable than the first. I made a few adjustments to the lesson and the tweaks made a world of difference in the level of student interest, as I’ll explain in a bit. 


The main focus for this week’s lesson is Valentine’s Day, but we do cover some other topics. We start off with a warm-up about how they spent their vacation, which allows me time to wander around the room and individually discuss answers with students. I then explain the day’s schedule, show some photos from our Scotland trip, teach two slang words (24/7 and airhead), introduce some new vocabulary words associated with Valentine’s Day, show a short video about the history of Valentine’s Day (it’s a bit complex for many of the students, but I explain it to them), I give a short lecture about how Americans currently celebrate the holiday, play a music video of Taylor Swift’s Love Story, lead the students through a couple of love-themed mad libs, and discuss how the Chinese celebrate their own version of Valentine’s Day (it’s called Qixi). Yes, it’s a bit difficult for the boys to be interested in the content, but I think that the girls enjoy the lesson. 


During the first class, I skipped the mad libs and did an interactive quiz about love instead. However, some of the questions were too complex (example: is love practical?), so I decided to scrap that part of the lesson and do the mad libs instead. 


For those of you unacquainted with mad libs, it’s an activity that many elementary-aged children do on long car trips to keep themselves occupied. (At least that’s when I did them.) Essentially, it’s a short story into which you inject special words. You don’t know the topic before you fill in the blanks with specific parts of speech (adjectives, verbs, proper nouns, etc.), so it’s silly when you read the completed “work”. Here’s an example. If you’re asked for a body part and you chose “eyes” like the students did today, it’s hilarious when the story says, “I would like to ask for your daughter’s eyes in marriage.” Or at least the students think it’s hilarious. 


Well I’ve got to run open the door for Jean-Jacques. He ran to Pala to get us dinner and I’m super excited about my chicken sandwich and french fries. Yay! Until later!

A day of reading and tea drinking

It was another slow day because I wasn’t feeling my best. I’ve been fighting off a cold for a few days now, and today it decided to semi-incapacitate me. I was well enough to do most normal things (I washed the bathroom floor and toilet), but I decided that a bit of rest wouldn’t be a bad thing since school is starting soon.


I read more of Zinn’s book today. Although I don’t agree with everything he says, he does make some interesting points and I think it’s an important read (especially since I’m a history teacher). Also, I’ve been enjoying keeping up to date on my history learning. 


I also plowed through a number of pages in The Memoir of Cleopatra. It's a bit trashy, but I have to admit that I have a soft spot for the book because it’s historical fiction. It’s been a while since I’ve read something in the genre, and I must admit that I’m happy to be back into it. I’ve been enjoying learning about the Roman Empire since historical fiction allows me to discover more about the past in an extremely entertaining way (though I make sure to constantly check the “facts” portrayed in the story).


We watched Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and it was another stinker. It was a teeny bit better than Tron, but not by much. I did enjoy watching in on our computer through Netflix because it was a legitimate copy and we didn’t have any men interrupting the story’s flow by getting up from their seats.


That’s about all the news for now. I’m off to drink some tea, read more of Cleopatra, and get a good night’s rest! 

Productive relaxing

Tron Legacy is probably one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. It’s so awful that I’m able to write this entry as I watch the film. Though I would have to admit that the viewing experience was enhanced by the silhouette of a man getting up from and returning to his seat in the theater where the bootleg was taken. (Yes, we’re watching a pirated version of the film that some friends gave us.)


It was another low-key day, and I managed to play around with Photoshop Elements quite a bit. I’m feeling more comfortable with the program, although I still have a lot more to learn. Here are some examples of what I did:

We skyped with Richard, Debbie, and Isabelle. They are all doing well and it was fun to talk with them. 


Jean-Jacques was extremely kind and got us both lunch (fried noodles) and dinner (Sichuan noodles) today. I did laundry, dusted a bit, read some of Howard Zinn’s book A People’s History of the United States, lesson planned for a while, took a short nap, and studied Chinese on the website livemocha.com (if you want to learn a language, it's worth checking out). I throughly enjoyed the day, but I am looking forward to starting school again. I miss the students and teaching.

It's actually a firework festival, not a lantern festival

As I sit down to write an entry, the sounds of fireworks are blasting throughout Anqing since today is the Lantern Festival that officially ends the Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year). Sadly, we’ve seen more fireworks than lanterns or any other form of celebration. Though it’s been a busy day for our ears, this Thursday was relaxing otherwise.


Yesterday was quite busy. I texted a teaching colleague to ask when he thought school would start. (I had already asked someone else, but the person didn’t give me much of answer, so I thought I might try another source.) He responded that there was a staff meeting in about an hour and he would find out then. I asked if I should attend, and he replied that it was my decision. I thought it would be a good idea for me to go and show my face for a little while. I haven’t done much with the teachers here, so I wanted to support the school. (As it turned out, I didn’t end up staying at the entire time...)


There was a slight hullabaloo about us going to Hefei next week. Directly before the staff meeting, I was informed by a man I barely recognized that Jean-Jacques and I would be traveling to Hefei for a Model United Nations conference next Thursday and Friday. We hadn’t been asked if we were interested in participating in the event and Jean-Jacques will be holding class for the first time with his new students during that time, so it’s not possible for us to attend. Also, since there aren’t any substitute teachers in China, I would have to switch teaching times, which would be difficult. Although we were willing to help on Saturday and Sunday (if our assistance was truly needed and we weren’t expected to stand around while acting like “dancing poodles” ), the administrators decided our presence wasn’t necessary. 


In the evening, we ate Chinese BBQ with some friends in a restaurant close to their house. At the meal we discovered that the wife is pregnant and they are thrilled about the news. They’ve been trying to have a child for a little while, so I’m extremely happy for them. In China, parents aren’t allowed to know the sex of their baby before the birth because many couples will abort a female baby if given the choice.


After dinner, we walked to their apartment and watched the movie Green Zone. I throughly enjoyed the film, but it might have made our friends a bit uncomfortable. I think they learned a lot from it, though, and we did have an interesting conversation afterward.


Today has been short since we slept in so late this morning. I think we’re catching up on sleep from our trip. I spent a few hours learning more about Adobe Photoshop Elements and I’m pleased with the progress I made. The picture for today’s post was one I took during the day in Edinburgh, but I had fun fiddling with it (as you can tell).


This semester I’ve set some goals for myself: 1) Learn how to be a better photographer and photo processor, 2) Work harder at learning Chinese (I was happy to successfully use my newly learned phrase “good evening” tonight), 3) Read some history books, and 4) Continue writing a journal and posting blog entries. So far, I've been able to work on all of my projects and I'm enjoying it.   


I suppose I should sign off to start the process of falling asleep despite the ruckus outside.  

Back "home"

Hefei, capital of Anhui province

I’m extremely content to be back in our apartment in Anqing. Our two and a half week absence has been a turning point for us and I’m thrilled to start the final semester of our year here. 


We spent the past four days in Hefei visiting some friends and attending a National Committee on U.S.-China Relations conference. During the meeting, we discussed a whole range of topics, from teaching techniques to reverse culture shock and it was fun to reconnect with everyone in our group. I enjoyed exchanging teaching strategies, swapping stories, and learning about how the others are adjusting to life as ex-pats in China. 


After the meeting, when we returned to the hotel to check out and depart, we discovered that the power was out. We had to climb ten floors in the DARK (none of the “emergency” lights were functioning ) to retrieve our luggage. Fortunately, Jean-Jacques had his cellphone with him, so we used the light to illuminate the way as we trudged up and down the stairs. 


A friend helped us get to the bus station in Hefei. Jean-Jacques was brave and bought tickets for us to Anqing while I guarded the luggage. We weren’t entirely sure when the bus would leave, but we were directed to an area where we waited for a few minutes before boarding a large bus. The ride took about two hours and we almost disembarked a bit early (we couldn’t understand the loudspeaker announcement, so it was a bit confusing), but we made it to the tiny bus station in Anqing. 

This evening, Jean-Jacques was generous and snagged us dinner while I hung up a load of laundry to dry; we have a number of dirty clothes from the trip, so it will take some time to run all the necessary loads of laundry.


I feel refreshed by our trip(s) and am thrilled to be back in Anqing. At this point, it feels like a "home away from home" and I'm so thankful that we're able to spend our year in this city. It's the perfect size for us -- small enough to easily walk many places, but large enough so that we’re able to locate some western amenities. It feels manageable, whereas Beijing, Shanghai, or even Hefei feel overwhelming to us. (I'd better stop writing because I'm starting to sound like Goldilocks!)


Hugs to all!

Photos from Edinburgh

St. Giles' Cathedral on the Royal Mile

Scary graveyard

The partially-completed National Monument

Parliament and Palace of Holyroodhouse

Palace of Holyroodhouse

A tower at the Palace of Holyroodhouse

Edinburgh Castle

The Royal Yacht Britannia

View from Arthur's Seat

A house in a valley

Planes, trains, and automobiles

A very sleepy me

After taking two busses, flying in two airplanes, riding the subway, taking a bullet train, riding in a taxi, and traveling for approximately twenty-six hours straight, I've safely made it from Edinburgh, Scotland to Hefei, China. Jean-Jacques and I are rather pleased that we successfully navigated the trip, even though there were a few mistakes along the way (we accidentally got of a bus at the wrong railroad station).


We've eaten a big Chinese dinner (it was delicious!), taken showers, and are about to crash into bed. Fortunately, we don't have anything scheduled tomorrow until dinner -- that should give us an opportunity to sleep in and adjust to the new time zone. 

Edinburgh, Day 11 & 12

Sadly, our time in Scotland is ending. We’re heading back to China tomorrow at around 12:00 PM local time in Edinburgh. It will be another long journey, but I imagine that we’ll be able to sleep on the plane. My feelings are mixed about returning to Anqing; I’ll be sad to leave the familiarity of western culture (and the ability to communicate with people), but I’ll be happy to finish out our year in China and continue learning what we can from the experience. 


Yesterday the weather was so poor that we ran some last-minute errands in the morning and then returned to the hotel room after lunch to wait for the rainy/snowy weather to stop. We ate dinner in a cute and delicious French restaurant and had a beer in a famous pub (the Oxford from the Inspector Rebus series). It was a fun night out on the town, but I was uncomfortably stuffed after the outing.


Today we left the hotel at around nine this morning, ate breakfast at a tasty sandwich shop, saw the movie Black Swan (it was a terrific film), rode a double-decker bus around the city, drank two cups of tea while reading in a Starbucks, ate pizza for dinner, packed, and watched some trashy British television.


I'll let you all know when we've safely arrived in Hefei!

Edinburgh, Day 9 & 10

Saturday, February 5, 2011
What a long, but fun day. We left the hotel at around 7:30 AM and didn’t return until around 8:00 PM.

We visited the Highlands, saw some amazing sites, and learned a considerable amount of history from our tour guide (who talked non-stop).

Here were some fascinating facts that I learned while on the trip:

Kilts are made with yards of fabric.

Most of the land in the Highlands is owned privately by about 2% of the population. Also, there isn’t any public land at all. People can own their own homes, but have to take a ninety-nine-year lease from a landowner (most of the land has been passed down families lines for hundreds of years). Once a person dies, the lease expires and the family member who inherits the house needs to renegotiate the contract.

The tour guide thought that there were two positive things about the landowner system: 1) The people cared for the land and didn’t pollute it, so nature was essentially being kept the same (he felt that the government wouldn't do a good job of preserving the land) and 2) There’s an informal rule in the Highlands that allows people to trespass without consequences.

People pay thousands of pounds for the opportunity to fish on rivers and hunt deer.

Only about 2% of people supported signing the treaty of union in 1707.

On the tour we stopped for coffee at the foot of the Highlands to see some Highland cattle, visited a  castle while it was pouring down rain, ate fish and chips in a seaside village, took a break in a town that was owned by a noble, and stopped for a short time at a mall on the edge of a loch.

(Oh yeah, We were on the tour with about thirteen other people; we didn’t talk to one another much, but everyone seemed pleasant enough. There were four people from Spain, two from Greece, one from Switzerland, one from Australia, two from Canada, and three from Brazil.)

Here are some photos from our adventure:

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Thank goodness for lazy Sundays! We decided to sleep in this morning for two reasons: 1) we are a bit tired from our busy touring schedule and needed a bit of rest and 2) nothing is over very early here on 

Saturdays and Sundays, so there’s really no point in leaving the hotel before 10 AM. 

We went to church, had tea, walked around the city, visited a music store, went into a mall, bought some souvenirs for friends in China, and had a burger for lunch. It was enjoyable to have a bit of a slower day.

I'm not quite sure what's on the schedule for tomorrow, but I think we're going to visit the site where golf was invented so we can take pictures for Richard.

Edinburgh, Day 7 & 8

Thursday, February 3, 2011
Briefly visited two modern art museums, went to a bookstore, ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant (I had fajitas), walked down some fun streets, went to a CD shop, stopped by the tourist bureau and bought tickets for a guided tour on Saturday and a Scottish flag, had tea at Eateaket, walked in the rain to an Oxfam bookstore (and chatted with the workers), watched Girl Who Played with Fire, and ate a frozen pizza for dinner. And now I’m off to bed. It was a fun and productive day.



Friday, February 4, 2011

Though the weather was rainy and blustery, Jean-Jacques and I had an excellent trip to the zoo. Yes, I know, it’s terrible to visit zoos since the animals are kept in captivity. However, in the case of the Edinburgh zoo, the organization tries hard to make a realistic habitat for the “residents” and keep them physically and emotionally stimulated. Many of the inhabitants are unable to survive in the wild. Also, the zoo is working hard to ensure that some animals don’t become extinct. Maybe it’s not the most ethical solution to the problem of keeping “wild” (many were born in captivity) animals caged for our amusement, but it’s the best zoo I’ve visited. 


We saw all sorts of interesting creatures -- rhinos, monkeys, zebras, penguins (they were fun to watch as they swam around and dove out of the water), birds, lions, wildcats, porcupines, etc. The weather was horrible and by the end of the visit, Jean-Jacques and I were both drenched. We kept trying to leave, but as we were on our way out, we continually found interesting animals or exhibits to explore. Our visit ended up lasting about three and a half hours.


Following the trip to the zoo, we took the bus and walked a short distance to a restaurant called Oink, which serves pork sandwiches. As it turned out, we were some of the last customers of the day. The owner of the establishment is a pig farmer who lives out in The Borders, so I imagine he needed to close up shop in time for him to get home for dinner. 


We then visited a tea shop and bought two cups as souvenirs. I haven’t gotten many things here to take home for a couple of reasons: 1) I haven’t seen anything I liked and 2) I don’t want to have to carry unnecessary things back to China and then to France once we’re finished teaching. However, I did want to buy a teacup here and Jean-Jacques and I found a couple of perfect ones that we decided to purchase. The shopkeeper was extremely helpful and took a long time packaging up the cups so we could send them to the States. Hopefully, they’ll arrive in once piece...


A trip to the Elephant House for afternoon tea was our final stop of the day. The English have one tradition that I would like to incorporate into my life and that is the custom of having afternoon tea. I think it is a perfect opportunity to take a breather for a few minutes, regroup, and prepare oneself for the rest of the day. During our time here, I’ve found that a cup (or two) of tea in the late afternoon helps me tackle the rest of the day.


This evening we cooked dinner, watched a bit of a rugby game, and saw The Men Who Stare at Goats. 


Tomorrow we’re heading out on a guided tour of some castles outside of Edinburgh. It will be fun to visit the Highlands! 

Edinburgh, Day 5 & 6

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Great day. Visited St. Giles Cathedral (it was a bit touristy, but the stained glass was beautiful), took a tour at Real Mary King’s Close (a semi-interesting visit through underground buildings, but it was a bit cheesy), visited the Camera Obscura and museum of illusion (awesome!), ate a delicious lunch at a Italian restaurant, watched Trainspotting, and saw an interesting documentary about gypsies (or travelers as they’re called here). (If you want to better understand Scotland, watch the film Trainspotting; it's a bit disturbing, but educational as well)


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

This Wednesday was another fruitful and educational day in Edinburgh. We ate a pancake breakfast/brunch at a local burger joint. It was delicious and provided much-needed fuel for most of the day. 


After the meal, we took a tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia, and it was fascinating to see the boat’s luxurious interior and exterior, but made me even more thankful that the US doesn’t support a monarchy. 


Following the boat tour, we took a double-decker bus to a science museum called Dynamic Earth. It was a bit dorky, but fun.


We ate dinner at a pizza restaurant, and finished the day by watching Wolfman (which isn’t a movie I’d recommend).


It’s hard to believe, but our trip is more than half over. We haven’t run out of things to do; actually, we hope we’ll have enough time to do everything we’d like. Although it will be sad to leave, I’ll be ready to tackle the remaining months in China. It really had been a wonderful vacation.