The Philippines

It's been a few weeks since my last update, there's so much to write about that I'll just dive right in.

As you might know I took a 10 day trip to the Philippines to meet the lovely Meaghan McGuire for an epic adventure that ended far too quickly. We decided if we ever went back, we'd need at least a month to truly enjoy all the amazing things that the Philippines offers.

We both arrived in Manila, a massive, hectic, bustling metropolis that has an amazingly diverse and intriguing culture.

Manila Bay is known for its amazing sunsets.

Jeepney's zoom down the streets. They are a lively, cheap way to travel.

But we only stayed one night in Manila, the next day we spent all afternoon searching for the overnight bus that would take us up north to the mountains and rice terraces. And after a less-than-pleasant 9+ hours on the bus, we were in the cool mountain air. We booked a room and then wandered around, we were in the heart of valley surrounded by meticulous rows of rice terraces, it was simply amazing.

These views are just a few minutes hike out of town.

We then hopped in a "trike," a dirt bike with a covered sidecar welded onto it, and cruised down the cliff-side road to the trailhead. We hiked for a good 6hours over, around, on, and through the rice terraces before reaching our destination of Batad.

This is one of the many "trikes" that whisk tourists and locals around the town.

I nearly had to drag Meaghan on this part of the hike, but we made it to the 30m waterfall.

Boasting perhaps the most striking of the terraces, Batad is simply amazing. This photo is the same area pictured as the map below.

View Larger Map

You can also check out the Batad rice terraces on Google Maps!

And some more terraces near Banaue.

Banaue at night.

After two nights and 3 days of hiking and racing around the mountains in the side car of a trike, we were back on the night bus to Manila. When we arrived back in the heart of the city, we hopped on a bus to the port city of Batangas and caught a ferry to the island of Mindoro.

We got off the ferry in a little town called White Beach, and while their beaches were what you'd expect from the name, it also had a "Cancun-Mexico-spring-break-vibe" so we flagged down a trike and headed as far as we could down the coast. We found a nice little enclave of small lodges and restaurants and we threw our bags in the room and wasted no time finding a nice spot on the beach.

The ferry, a Bangka, from Batangas.

We stayed at a little place called Mengie's.

Chillin with the man himself.

Fortify the walls!

At least we left on a cloudy, grey day.

We spent the final night of our trip back in Manila, and all I can say is it all went too quickly! It was an awesome trip and if you are ever considering travelling to Asia, the Philippines has it all; wonderful food, amazing scenery, pristine beaches, friendly people, and most importantly it's cheap!

So now that I'm back in Daqing I'm teaching winter conversation classes. The last day of class we had an "American Food" unit so we made sandwiches, which, as you know is my specialty.

Kurtis makin the bacon for some BLT's

Yoyo dominating a sammy.

It snowed again here a week or two ago, another light dusting I got a glimpse of just how everything gets done around here.

A light dusting of snow.

No need for snowplows, brooms and plastic shovels will do. (This is on the main street in Yixi)

And one last thing, a shout out to Brett for the Chinese New Year card. Pretty epic dude.

It's the year of the DRAGON.

Harbin Ice Festival & more

I don't always post twice a month, but when I do you know it's because there have been more than two noteworthy events. But seriously! The winter has been fairly mellow, even so I've managed a few different excursions around town and in Harbin as well.

But before that, here are a few extra photos of the Christmas party from Elaine's camera.

Vickey with the big SpongeBob

Elaine with the sickliest of poses!

Kelly chillin with Nate

Kurtis was a pretty, pretty good Santa

This one isn't from Christmas, but it might be the most epic class photo we've had yet.

A few days after New Years, the school had a little party for the teachers and it was actually pretty sweet. We went to a spa on the outskirts of Xincun for a relaxing day of swimming and soaking in a bunch of different hot pools. There were five or six different types of saunas ranging from "Steam Room" to "Smog Room," I imagine it was a translating error, or at least I hope so.

After that we headed to a banquet room and had a dinner party, and the Chinese teachers love to sing songs and play games so of course there was a ton of that.

The spread at our dinner table, not bad!

The Chinese teachers performing a dance/song

The next Monday I bundled up and prepared to brave a -5 degree evening in Harbin, why would I do that you ask? The simple answer is the Harbin Snow and Ice Festival, and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! (All buildings are made of out bricks of ice, with different colored lights within).

Panoramic View at Dusk

It was coooooooooold, but so awesome and worth it!

Full Moon

The Entrance

Pretty Epic

Took a ride on a Yak, like the shameless tourist I am...

They even threw in some slides for good measure!

Night and Day!

Other than that, the Yixi "fog" still rolls in from time to time...

Nice day eh?

And we finally got our first snow, unfortunately it was nothing more than a dusting.

First "Snow"

Chinese New Year is on Monday the 23rd and the town is already illuminated with red lanterns and other colorful decorations.

Yixi Main Square

In case you aren't up to date on the Chinese calender, this will be the year of the Dragon! For all you 1988 homies, it must be a sign of a good year to come.

Year of the Dragon!

And if that wasn't enough, tomorrow I'm heading to the Philippines and meeting up with Meaghan in Manila. We are planning to travel up to the Banaue rice terraces and then take a trip over to the island of Palawan to relax on the beach, hopefully all goes as planned!

Happy Chinese New Year! Set off some fireworks for the year of the Dragon!

Christmas and New Years

Ni Hao! It's finally 2012 and I'm still reeling from the holiday fun, not to mention I have my real "winter break" in the Philippines very soon. Here's the express version of what's been going on the past month or so.

We had an epic day of cooking before our epic Christmas party for the kids:

We had a breakfast of pancakes and homemade sausage
Elaine might look super hyped, but knowing her sense of sarcasm...

Eatin' that Breakfast

Mixin' that batter

Makin' those cookies

We probably made 200+ cookies or so, we wanted to make sure everyone got their fair share and Kurtis got a few pounds of chocolate chips sent over so we made sure to use 'em up!

All of these cookies were a special surprise for our students, we had told them all to invite a friend and join us for a big Christmas party and it was a blast.

Santa (Kurtis) giving out the cookies (I'm posing for photos bottom right)

NOM NOM NOM NOM

There are a TON of better pictures and I just haven't had a chance to get them from the assistants yet but when I do perhaps I'll post a few. The party was a success overall, minus a few bumps here and there. Even the local T.V. station sent a camerawoman and I've heard rumors there will be an article in the newspaper too. I'll try to track that down.

The Christmas Choir is over for now and while it was a blast I don't know if I want to hear "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" again for a few months...our 4 songs were: Rudolph, Jingle Bells, It's a Small World, and The Hokey Pokey (why not?). Here's the crew getting down with part of the Hokey Pokey!


And for Christmas day I watched Die Hard with Liam and Leo (British), then we went over to the Orange Bar where Leo (Chinese) had a big old turkey for us!

I had a blast skyping with the fam for presents and with the Staebells on Christmas day, and I want to thank all of you for just saying hi cause I know it was a bit hectic.

And for New Years Eve I went to Kingsley's place, it was his birthday and everyone was having a great time.

Especially these dudes

And I hate to say it, but unfortunately my first kiss of the new year came from a highly inebriated Matt (a new arrival, and one of the homies).

Sorry Meaghan!

But to tell you the truth, even if Matt had not dove lips-first onto my cheek that evening, my first kiss of 2012 would still probably be from a dude, one of my students Tom.
Tom is a chill little bro, despite having a rat-tail (15in or so?), and he does this thing where he runs up and grabs my hand and he always wants to kiss it. SUPER WEIRD I know but what are you gonna do, the kid thinks you're the coolest right? Plus it's just on the hand, no harm done.
Buuuuuuuut, one day I was unsuspecting and he motioned like he wanted to whisper something to me so I leaned down and next thing you know he smacked one right on my cheek! Owned.

Another moment of absolute cuteness was just last week in my Shen Tong 1 class (5 year olds). I usually play a game where the children chant the new word and pass a magnet down the line while I'm not looking and then I guess "who has the magnet?" But I almost always purposely lose, the risk of upsetting the children is too great! And when they're happy they are much easier to teach! But last week Emily came running up and began making a scene while I was about to take one of my "lives" away. beleaguered by the frantic Chinese coming out of her little voicebox I looked over at Elaine and said "what?????" Apparently Emily said "Jake you always lose! I just want you to win for once too!"

Today in a different Shen Tong 1 class, I had a new student and he was sitting at the end of the row next to Melissa and Glynn. Melissa is super cute and one of my brightest happiest students, Glynn tends to goof around but when it comes to speaking English he's right up there with the best. Anyways, after class Kelly stopped me and said "did you notice Glynn was 'fighting' with the new boy?" I had noticed something, it wasn't really fighting but something was definitely amiss. "Well Glynn was fighting with the new boy over Melissa!" and sure enough they were both sitting right next to her showing off the whole class!

Finally, I'll leave you with perhaps the funniest moment of the past month. I walked into my Shen Tong 2 class and before I could even look up I heard Leo.

The first words of the first class of the week: Jake is a Poo Poo Monster!!!!!

I knew it was gonna be a good week.

Turkey Day, Teaching, Funny Stuff, and 再见 (Zàijiàn) to Will and Katie!

It's been sometime since my last post, and while I feel that not too much has been going on the days and weeks are flying by! It's already December and the winter weather hasn't let up except for today, it's in the 20's right now but this is what the weather forecast usually looks like...

If it's above 20 it ain't too bad!

I don't mind the cold, even on the days where I wake up early to teach the Kindergartens. What I do mind is when I wake up to take a shower and the pipes decide to pump out this fowl brownish-orange liquid instead of water...

Really?

So instead of taking a shower I'll have some coffee and watch the sunrise behind the oil refinery:

Sunrise in Yixi

We had an unorthodox Thanksgiving here, Thursday night is one of our league bowling nights and let me tell you I'm getting better and better. I didn't think it would be me, but I was pushing for someone, anyone, to get a "Turkey" (three strikes in a row if you've never been bowling) in honor of our great American holiday! So Kurtis and I had a bet on this game in particular and I delivered in the clutch with a Turkey AND the win over Kurtis for a whopping 5 yuan!

4 Strikes isn't a Turkey, but you have to get a Turkey to get 4 right?

This week I'm in the hunt for the league cash prizes for Strikes, Spares, Highest Avg, and Highest pin total, I'll find out if anyone can beat me on Thursday but I posted my highest score ever 184, and I vow to hit 200 by the end of the league!

Last Sunday we had a goodbye/Movember party for Will and Katie who left on Tuesday to travel in South China and Southeast Asia, and finally to head home to Canada where Will is a firefighter. Not just any kind of firefighter, a forest fire fighter, a rappelling down from a helicopter firefighter. What a Boss.
I only just met Will and Katie but it's sad to see them go, they are two wonderful people and they showed me hospitality and we had some great times together here in Daqing. This photo sums up our friendship perfectly...

Gonna miss these kooks!

If you're wondering what kind of amazingly stylish beard I'm sporting, I showed up with my typical grizzly-Adams, No-Shave November look which was not appropriate for this particular occasion. Next thing you know I'm behind the bar where anyone who didn't have a Movember "Mustache" style would get a quick trim. Everyone knows what I lack in the bushy mustache department I make up for in the full beard, so I had my trim tailored accordingly.

Alright fine I'll get my beard trimmed!


Snip Snip Snip!

Almost done!

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good!

And Voila! I chopped it all off two days later as to not frighten my young students!
Finally, here is a photo of everyone, Zaijian Will and Katie and good luck during your travels!

Some nice Mustaches in there

This weekend Kurtis' old friend from Joy School Mack and his wife Sandra had us over for a typical Chinese dinner, and we got to try some of Mack's homemade red wine. The wine was a bit sweet but not bad for homemade, and I think I'll be back to his place soon as he has a decent collection of English books including his favorite, which he insists I must borrow, The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

Sandra, Andrew, Mack, Kurtis, and yours truly

By popular demand I have a couple more teaching pictures and whatnot, although I'm still pestering Elaine for the epic photos she has of Mary attacking/kissing poor little Nate so that will have to wait until next time!

Here's one of my favorite classes, Shentong 1, these little guys make my day on Sat/Sun. All of them are very clever and just see if you can spot our two little troublemakers Jeff and Jerry...best friends in the class and both very bright dudes, I can't help but think back to when I was a little guy just like them.

Shentong 1 RULEZ!!

Next is one of my smaller classes, Shentong 2, so we are moving up the pecking order. The room tends to be a bit cooler in the evening so the kids are wearing their coats. The one little girl without a coat, however, is little Nimo. What she lacks in height she makes up for in her English skills and her attitude, a lot of the little girls have some great picture poses...haha!

Can't miss Nimo's epic pose

And of course our lovely Chinese assistants (or Boss if you are Susan!) having a bite to eat in the office. If you ever noticed that a lot of Chinese people like to pose for pictures doing the "peace sign," I can tell you it is one of those stereotypes that usually holds true. The meaning, however, is not peace but VICTORY! Which would explain the popularity!

Another Night in the Office

Last week was payday which is always awesome, I've been saving a bunch of money each month and I am still able to live very comfortably day-to-day. There's nothing like getting paid in cold hard cash, I run straight to the bank to be safe, but it's quite funny receiving a brown paper bag with your months earnings in it. It feels more like you are doing some back-alley deal when you get the money like that, but the "To Jake" on the front makes it legit.

To: Jake. Cash Money!

And with that fat wad of dough safely in the bank I headed to the supermarket to pick up some necessities. I found some Ketchup here in Yixi, it's easy to find in Xincun or Ranghulu but I was impressed I found it way out here despite the unfamiliar packaging.

Who could resist buying toilet paper with these Space-Invader-esque characters on the label?

I'm not sure this company used "Anglicism" correctly in this instance, but these "Mylikes" "From Anglicism" were just like whoppers and very delicious.

There's a blonde joke about not being able to find the "Toast" section at the store, but I can assure you I have found the toast section.

And finally, this might be a bit inappropriate but I needed some hooks to hold my bathroom and kitchen towels and seriously, I'm not NOT gonna buy these ones if I have the choice!

Otherwise I'm doing well, it's officially cold here and thank goodness for pick up basketball Wed/Fri and Bowling league Mon/Thurs because otherwise I would have cabin fever! Will and Katie leaving was a big bummer, but where one door closes another opens, and Matt and Charlotte just moved into Will and Katie's old place so we've got some new friends. That's how it goes in Daqing, some people stay years, others just months. And with that constant influx of new teachers arriving and old friends leaving, I can't help but be thankful that such a wonderful group is here right now during my stay.
And thank goodness Wisconsin won the Big Ten, otherwise I would have nothing to taunt Kurtis and his Buckeyes with for the rest of the winter!
TIC