Back From the Dead

Well damn, it’s good to see you again. I know it has been awhile, so I have a lot of things to catch you up on. Let’s start with my trip after my last blog entry.

SanYa/NanNing/BinYang
It was so nice to finally be somewhere warm, sunny, and sandy after conquering the cold of HaerBin. I met up with Fritz the morning after my last blog post and we headed to the airport to catch a plane to HaiKou, HaiNan. HaiKou is at the very north of HaiNan Island, so we stayed there for the night. It was Chinese New Year’s Eve that night so we tried to find something to do, but I was incredibly tired from traveling so I just went to sleep. I didn’t sleep too well with all the fireworks going off all night, but I managed to get some rest. The next day we took a train to SanYa. We found our hostel and set up our tent on their roof. We didn’t bring any sleeping bags, pillows, or anything else one might need to sleep in a tent, but we really weren’t too worried about it. We slept on a piece of foam that was about a centimeter thick and used our jackets bags for pillows. We also used our jackets for a blanket, but the weather was so nice that it wasn’t really needed. I thought staying in the tent was quite nice because it got us up early in the morning from the heat of the sun or the loudness/annoyingness of the firecrackers. During Chinese New Year, firecrackers are heard all day, every day. Sometimes it can get quite annoying – like at six in the morning when you’re still trying to sleep – or it starts to become normal and relatively unnoticed. We thought we were only going to stay in the tent for the two nights that we booked it for, but we were having so much fun that we decided to just stay there for the entire five nights. The first morning I woke up with my back hurting a bit, but after that, all was good. If I woke up early and still felt tired from lack of sleep, then I would just walk five minutes to the beach and take a nice little nap. There are not too many things better than the beach and sun, especially when they happen simultaneously. We spent most of our days going to the beach and hanging out. We rented a bike for a couple days and went on a really long bike ride to the “End of the World.” It felt like the end of the world when we got there. We didn’t understand the significance of most of the things there. I’m sure it was special, but if you can’t read Chinese then, well, you’re screwed. Nevertheless, it was a fun bike ride and some good exercise. Although, at one point we were riding on the beach and some of the guys were squeezing their brakes so that their back tires would slide on the sand. It looked like some fun so I decided to try it out for myself. Next thing I know I’m brushing sand off me. Apparently, the back break and the front break are reversed here in China. Good times. We also met some really cool people at our hostel. Fritz and I hung out with this Philippino guy and two German guys for most of the time. We also met a Polish couple and another guy from Switzerland. They were all super friendly and fun to hang out with. It was my first real hostel experience and I hope it’s not my last. Great way to meet people and here their stories. SanYa was very nice and relaxing. The beach just never gets old.

Next, we took a bus from SanYa to NanNing. We left at two in the afternoon and arrived at four in the morning. We had a sleeper bus, but they really jam people on those things. Not the most comfortable, but I did manage to get some sleep. Once we arrived in NanNing, we met up with a couple of guys who Fritz knows somehow. I’ve asked him many times, but my memory is awful. All I know is that one is the boss and the other is his assistant. The boss is a nice guy, but doesn’t speak English. The assistant is also a very nice guy and speaks pretty good English. They showed us around the city and bought us lunch and dinner. They also put us up in a nice hotel and paid for that as well. They were incredibly accommodating and super nice. We only stayed in NanNing for two days, but it was nice to see the capital city of GuangXi province (the province that I am in).

We then met up with a guy who is a student at my university. I didn’t know him before but somehow Fritz knew him. I don’t think they are very good friends but he invited Fritz and I to his hometown for a couple of days to celebrate a festival there. It was this crazy firework festival where about eight guys run around with a fake dragon and people throw huge strands of firecrackers to try and “kill” the dragon. It is nonstop firecrackers for around five hours. It is extremely loud and sometimes painful (like if you catch a firecracker on the face of something). It was an experience that I will never forget. It seems so surreal still. I was asked if I wanted to carry the dragon for a bit, but I decided against it because it looked painful in there. It was like a warzone (I wouldn’t know, but something like they try and portray in movies). I posted a video at the bottom for you to see just how crazy it was. I wore a Chinese hat, a face mask, and some ear plugs to try and protect myself. My ears wouldn’t stop ringing for about a week and I was legitimately starting to get worried that I was going deaf. For those of you who know me pretty well you know that I’m a bit (ok, a big) hypochondriac, so you can imagine what I was thinking. The rest of the time there was fun. Simon’s (the student who we stayed with) family was incredibly accommodating and nice. They didn’t speak any English so Fritz and Simon helped translate for me. Their home was very nice and they cooked us some great food. I tried 狗肉 (gou rou) for the first time. “Rou” is meat and “gou” is dog, so yeah. Dog meat. It was pretty good. Don’t hate me. Just think about the dogs as being raised like cows. Raised to be eaten. I know it’s hard to imagine since most of us don’t have cows as pets, but just try for a second and then you might not be so grossed out. Or maybe you still are. Oh well. BinYang was the last stop on our trip. We made it back home a few days before school started again. It was a great month. I really love traveling and experiencing new things.

Teaching
Teaching is going well this semester. I am much busier than I was last semester. I’m teaching about three times the number of hours I was last semester. Before you start feeling bad for me, know that I’m still only teaching 16 hours a week and they are paying me a bit more since I’m teaching more than the other foreign teachers. I actually like being a bit busier because it helps me get things done and not be too lazy. The reason I’m teaching so much more is because one of the foreign teachers left at semester so I took over a lot of his classes. The only downside to teaching 12 classes in a week is that I give the same lesson 12 times. I have now seen the movie “The Bucket List” 12 times. Great movie. Never want to see it again.

WeiZhou Dao
A few weekends ago we had some time off for a Chinese holiday. It is called Qing Ming Festival, which is somewhat similar to Memorial Day. A few friends and I went to this small island off the coast of Southeast China. It is West of HaiNan and East of Vietnam. It is still a part of China, though. We spent a couple of days there just relaxing and enjoying the sun. The beach was about a minute’s walk from our hostel. I could really get used to a set up like that. I absolutely love the beach and the ocean. It was nice to just be there, hanging out with some good people and enjoying the sun and sand. It’s been quite fun and interesting being able to meet, and become friends with, people from all over the world. The nationalities that were included on the trip were Spanish, Mexican, Estonian, American, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. As you can see in the picture of Kait, Adela, and I, (Kait on the left, Adela on the right) I was being very responsible. We have another short holiday coming up at the beginning of May, so some of us might take another short trip.

I’m still enjoying my time here. The weather is becoming much nicer, although they keep saying the rainy season is about here. This week has been extremely nice. Sunny most every day and temperatures in the upper 70’s, low 80’s. Every time I ride my mo-ped around, I just think about how lucky I am to be doing what I’m doing. I’ve actually decided that I want to stay for another semester. I just told P and D about it the other day, and they reacted like I thought they would. Mom shook her head and said “What?!” But, like they always do, they support me. Well, not financially (unless you guys want to). They support my decision and just want me to be happy. I promised to be home for Christmas. Also I plan to come home at the end of June and stay for about a month or so before I come back to China. There are just a lot more places I want to see around China and Southeast Asia. I also want to commit myself to learning Chinese. This plan still isn’t “for sure,” but it pretty much is. It gives you all more time to come visit. I’d love to show you around Southern China if any of you are interested.

Well that’s all I’ve got for now. I hope this post finds you all well and hopefully enjoying some nice weather as we head into Spring. I miss you all and love you very much. Jensen Alan should be here (well not here as in China, but here as in the world) very soon. I’m SUPER excited about having a nephew. I can’t wait to see him when I come home for Kyle and Katie’s wedding. If any of you want to catch up then send me an email or we can skype. I’ve been accused of being bad at keeping in touch, but I’m working on that. Life is good my friends.

-Kevin

"Harry, you're hands are freezing!"

Well I have about a one day vacation here between my vacations so I thought I would update you a little about my travels so far and share some really exciting photographs with you. As many of you may or may not know, my good friend Luika is studying Chinese in Shanghai so I thought I would go up and visit her. I wanted to only stay for a couple of days, but she made me stay for about two and a half weeks. Quite pushy really. Actually, she was incredibly kind to let me stay at her place for pretty much my entire trip. Her roommate was gone so I was able to have a bed free of charge. I had to sneak in every day, but that really wasn't too difficult. I will just talk a little bit about what I/we did over the past couple of weeks.

Shanghai is a much bigger, more expensive, more western, and has many more expats than what I'm used to in Guilin. At first it was a little bit of a culture shock for me again. It's just so much more fast paced than what I've been used to. It really reminds me a bit of New York City. The first couple of days Luika was kind enough to show me around a little and teach me how to use the subway system. Now I'm pretty much a master, but who really cares. Anyway, the first couple of days I just kind of bummed around while Luika was studying, but I still got to see some places. Once she was done with her exams she started to work during the days so I would explore the city. I went to the Aquarium and saw a bunch of kewl fish and such. I also went up in the Jin Mao tower which overlooks the entire city. It was a fantastic view, although the windows hadn't been cleaned yet so my pictures have a few specs on them. I tried to get some of my money back, but my Chinese is rather lacking so, well I didn't really try at all. I really didn't even think about it until I just wrote that sentence. Maybe I should go back. Naa. On other days I explore the Yu Yuan Garden as well as The Bund and People's Square. I came to find out that Shanghai has a lot of watches, backpacks, etc. Everywhere I went someone was trying to sell me something. I tried to sell my MP3 player to one of them, but I don't think he thought it was very funny. I did go to one of the underground markets to buy myself a new backpack because my other backpack broke a few days earlier. It was fun haggling with the store owner for the price of the backpack. Although I don't speak very much Chinese, I have been here long enough to know how much things should cost. So I bought a backpack and some soccer jerseys. Usually I would explore the city and then meet up with Luika later on for dinner or something. One morning I saw a lady run out of a cab to some bushes near by and puke. It was pretty gross, but at least her night before was probably a good one. Where was I? Oh yeah, Shanghai. Luika took me to some cool restaurants and bars around the city. I met a lot of very nice people. There are people from all over the world living in Shanghai which is pretty neat. It's fun to meet people and hear their stories. I tried to take a lot of pictures while I was in Shanghai, but most of them are scenery pictures since I was by myself a lot of the time while exploring. I always feel like a huge dork setting the timer on my camera to take a picture, but I got the courage to do it a few times. My last night in Shanghai, Luika and I went to The Bund so I could take some pictures. It really is quite beautiful at night. Another night Luika got tickets to this show called "Walking With Dinosaurs." It was a bunch of fake, real looking (does that make sense?), dinosaurs. It was interesting. It was all in Chinese but the dinosaurs were fun to watch. Hmm, what else? Can't think of anything right now, but Shanghai was a good time.

Like I said, most of my time was spent in Shanghai, but we did manage to make it up to Harbin (Haerbin). Harbin is the the Northeast of China, very close to Russia. It is known for it's really cool Snow and Ice Festival, and also for its incredibly cold weather. We decided to make a short trip up there to see what all the fuss was about (we later came to find out that it's so damn cold...that's why people fuss). We flew in (delayed flight) Wednesday night and flew back to Shanghai (delayed flight again) on Friday night. Wednesday night we just walked around a little and found this Russian restaurant that Luika's friends had recommended to eat it. It was delicious. After that we walked around a little more then went back to the warm hostel. On Thursday we got up and went to eat some local food at McDonald's. Then we caught a cab to the Siberian Tiger Park. The tiger park reminded me of some scenes from the movie Jurassic Park. We were in a van with bars over the open windows so that the tigers couldn't eat us. We all know that it's fun and games until somebody gets hurt. They weren't taking any chances I guess. We drove through the tiger park where there are literally hundreds of tigers. It was really cool to see. Tigers are really amazing animals. We tried to buy a chicken to feed the tigers, but we couldn't figure out where to buy it. If you wanted, you could also buy a cow for 2000 yuan to feed to the tigers. No thanks. After we left the tiger park, we went back to our hostel and hung out in the lobby. We watched a few episodes of the not-as-good-as-the-American-version The Office and then played some card games. Later on in the night we went to the Snow and Ice Festival. I had four pairs of pants/tights on and four long sleeved shirts with a coat. I also had four pairs of socks with toe warmers (thank you Mrs. Bankson), and two pairs of gloves with hand warmers (thanks again Mrs. Bankson). I also wore a hat, a scarf, and something else to cover my face. That all still wasn't warm enough. It got close to -30 degrees Celsius, which is the coldest weather I've been in. That being said, I'm glad we went. The Festival was fun to see. The different things they built out of ice and snow were amazing. There were also tons of ice slides all over the place. I may have gone down one or two. Or most of them. Who doesn't like an ice slide? It was also interesting trying to take pictures because my camera started to be really slow and the battery started to run out very quickly because of the cold. Our eyelashes started to have icicles on them from the cold. It was just crazy. Crazy. Our eyelashes started to have icicles on them from the cold. We stayed at the Festival for a couple of hours, then headed back to the hostel. We were recommended a hot pot restaurant nearby for dinner so we thought we'd test 'er out. We walked in to this family owned establishment and immediately stared at by the 10 or so patrons there. The boss lady asked us if we could read/speak Chinese because the menu was only in Chinese. Luika can, so we decided to give it a try. We finally got all our food ordered successfully and it was brought out to the table. After about 10 minutes the husband of the boss lady left and came back with his daughter. She sat down with us and asked if we needed anything from her. Huh? Apparently her dad went and got her to come sit with us and talk to us in English. Her English was very good and she was very nice. She sat with us for the rest of dinner. Earlier, before we got our food, we ordered a couple beers (3 for Luika and 1 for me). The warm lukewarm at best, so we asked for cold ones. The boss man then just took them outside and five minutes (maybe less) later they were nice and cold. That's how cold it was. After that we found this firework stand and bought some sparklers. We decided to light them one by one until we were done. We did it right in the middle of the street, right next to the rest of the fireworks. Good thing we didn't light the entire stand on fire. That probably wouldn't have been good. After that we just went back to the hostel and went to sleep. The next day we got all packed up and decided to walk around the town a bit more. We found this old church (I'm blanking on the name) and looked around a bit. We then went and had dumplings and made our way back to the hostel to leave for the airport. I spent a couple more days in Shanghai and then got back to Guilin late last night/early this morning. I had a fantastic time there.

I'll be here in Guilin for about 14 more hours until I leave again. Like I said, today is my vacation between my vacations. Fritz and I leave tomorrow morning for Sanya, Hainan. It is an island off the Southeast coast of China. It is supposed to be the "Hawaii of China," so I'm looking forward to that. I've been in very freezing weather, and now I get to go to some warm, sunny weather. I'm not sure the exact date I'll be back in Guilin, but when I do get back I'll be sure to write about my travels to Sanya. If you want, you can always email me at kevinshrout@gmail.com. Also, I have posted all my pictures to Facebook so go check them out if you're interested. Well I better get going because I still have to unpack and then pack again. Rough life.

As always, I hope this post finds you all well. I miss you all terribly and love you as well. Life is funny sometimes, but it sure is good. Remember that.

-Kevin

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it. -- George Moore

I want to start off first by saying I hope everyone enjoyed a very merry Christmas, and a fantastic new year. Does time fly or what? 2011 already? Man, I remember back in the good ole days when (fill in the blank yourself). 2010 was a good year, but I hope 2011 is even better.

Let's get down to it; Christmas was not-so-fantastic this year. It is truly a holiday that is meant to be spent with family. It came and went this year and I can honestly say it felt nothing like what I'm used to. I hope to never miss another Christmas with my family. They mean the world to me and spending such an important holiday away from home helped me realize that even more. Sometimes I take them for granted. Actually, many times in my life I have taken my family for granted. This year I think I truly realized how blessed I am to have such an amazing, supporting, loving family. On a brighter note, Christmas Even was pretty good. I know that totally contradicts what I just said, but given the circumstances it was good. A bunch of the foreigners all gathered at one of the apartments and had dinner. Everyone brought a typical dish from their country. The food was excellent. We also had a secret santa gift exchange, which was fun as well. Christmas day was blah. The bright spot, however, was breakfast at McDonald's with Kait. Of course it didn't even come close to some good old fashioned egg casserole, but it did the job. I did get to talk with the family via Skype on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, so that was nice. Well and it sucked. But mostly it was nice. The picture on the right and below is from our Christmas Eve party.
New Year's was a good time as well. We went to dinner with a lot of people and then just went downtown to a bar to celebrate. Again, it didn't really feel like new year's, but I do have to say it was better than Christmas day. Don't get me wrong, I am having a great time here and have made some amazing friends. But the holidays are just different away from home. Much different. Almost as if they don't exist. I mean they do exist, but it's like they don't. Like I know we had December 25th and January 1st here this year, but it just wasn't the same. Ok, I'm done. The picture below is of Fritz and I on new year's. I'm not as grown up as I look. Trust me.
I have also gone on a couple short trips over the past month. The first one was to a city called Yangshuo. It is about an hour and a half away and is a very popular city to go see. It is very touristy. The city is beautiful. It is surrounded by mountains. I went there with some friends for a night and then met up with some of the other foreign teachers/students the next day to take part in a massive (massive as in 300 people on each team) tug-of-war game. Later in the night we saw a show on the water with the mountains lit up in the background. It really was beautiful. I tried to get some pictures but they didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. The next short one night trip I went on was to a city a little further away called HeZhou (prounced huh joe, or something like that...who knows). I went with a buddy of mine, Erik. He is from Estonia and has been teaching in China for a little over a year. Good dude. It was me, him, Charlie (his Chinese roommate), and a bunch of Charlie's colleagues. The main attraction there was the hot springs. Erik and I traveled there by ourselves and planned on meeting Charlie at the bus station. Well, we got to the bus station and called Charlie, but no answer. We waited for about 30 minutes until he finally called back. He was in the hot spring. Fair enough. Erik and I took a taxi to downtown where we were supposed to meet up with Charlie. He and his colleagues showed up about an hour later. It gave us a chance to walk around and see the city a little bit. We eventually went to dinner and then to a KTV (karaoke bar, but you get your own private room). We were there the rest of the night. Toward the end of the night there the Chinese guys taught Erik and I a gambling game. Of course I refrained. I mean, come on, my parents taught me better than to gamble. Especially with guys I don't know in a foreign country playing a game I'd never seen before. I won 100 yuan. Suckers. The picture to the left is of the hot springs. The picture below if from Yangshuo. It's Fritz, Carmine, Ricca (a Chinese friend), and myself.
A few more things...
A special thanks goes out to John for booking my ticket back home for Kyle and Katie's wedding on June 4th. I am super excited and very thankful to John for using his miles on me. I know they could've gone to much better use, so thank you so incredibly much.

Happy birthday Rohlf, and happy birthday Chad. Joe's birthday is today and Chad's is the 5th.

A big congratulations to Calvin Clark and Melissa Lewis on their engagement. Wowzers, I can't believe it. Seems like yesterday we were in Ross Hall getting caught for making a beer pong table (sorry Mom and Dad...never told you about that one). But I wish the best for you two and can't wait for the wedding.

As always, I hope this post finds you all well. I miss you all and love you all very much. Life is good my friends. I hope 2011 brings you all the happiness in the world.

-Kevin

This is a picture of one of my classes. Fantastic.