An American Ex-Pat Living And Working In East Asia
Happy New Year everyone!
Even though I’ve lived in China for 9 years, I’ve never actually been in China on THE eve of Chinese New Year. I can hardly describe what I just experienced!
All I can say is this, China just re-did that famous scene from Crocodile Dundee where he pulls out his huge knife and says “That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife!” China just said, “Those aren’t fireworks, THESE are fireworks!”
Yesterday the girl’s pre-school (which is also a music school) had their big “Chinese New Year” performance. They rented out a theater in one of the fancy buildings downtown, and when we showed up, we knew it was going to be a ‘big deal’. (You see, they never really tell us – sometimes we show up to these things and it’s one song and at parent teacher’s meeting, other times it’s like yesterday… a full-blown production.) The theater was huge and when we first arrived, Erica had doubts that they would fill it up. Well, they did fill it up, and there were even people standing!
Everyone performed, I mean everyone! Even the school’s staff did the opening act with some kind of swan dance or something. And then the piano performances started. Don’t get me wrong, these kids were amazing, some of them only 3 or 4 years old, playing really difficult songs. The thing was, there were over 75 of them! That is why the event took almost 4 hours! (Sorry to our house helper who was babysitting Nate and had to stay late!)
The girls did have their part too. We had to sit through 4 hours of other stuff to get this, you get to go right to the good stuff! Enjoy!
It seems that the best way to keep your kids from getting hurt is to get them out of the house.
According to figures from the U.K. government, obtained by the Sun under the United Kingdom’s Freedom of Information Act, the number of kids under 15 injured while climbing trees, skateboarding, and the like has fallen.
Does this mean that children have become more athletic or less accident-prone? Does it mean they have perfected their tree-climbing and skateboarding skills?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/
No, it seems that they are simply staying indoors more, glued to their screens like rubberneckers to an overturned truck. You see, the same figures revealed that injuries from playing video games have gone up 60 percent since 2002.
Severely pained thumbs appear to be the main cause of kids’ visits to emergency rooms in the United Kingdom. And one can only wonder if the U.K. hospital system has developed special methods for massaging thumbs so that they can retake their rightful place in the World of Warcraft.
Perhaps soon special video game physiotherapy clinics will open, with doctors in frightening headgear making kids feel at home, even when they are away from their own frightening games.
I think that it could be big business. Soon, perhaps, your health insurance might have special coverage for acts of Warcraft, just as it has for acts of God.
There is a new mode of transportation in town, and we are pretty excited about it!
When I first moved to Yueyang (about 9 years ago) there were two ways to get to this city from the closest city with an airport. The ‘highway’, which took 3-4 hours in good weather and the train which was a pretty consistent 2-2.5 hours. Then the ’super highway’ opened up and you could ride a bus in about 2 hours and then take a taxi from the bus station into town in another 40 mins to an hour.
Those of you who have braved the trip to come and visit us can testify to how getting to us was not an easy task!
But things have changed. On December 26th, the day after we celebrated the birth of Christ, the high-speed train started operating. It’s amazing (it’s the fastest train in the world with an average speed of 350 Kmph and a high speed of 400 Kmph)! It will take us to the capital city of our province in just 30 minutes! The city to the north of us, which used to be 3.5-4 hours away, is now only 50 minutes! This has potential to change things in a big way.
We are hoping to ride it soon – when we do, we’ll be sure to share the story and post some photos!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Erica and Nate left this morning for Hong Kong. That leaves me with Elizabeth and Anna until Wednesday!
I wanted to take the girls somewhere fun that would be special for them since they love HK so much and were sad that Mom and Nate got to go and they didn’t, so we headed out to the Golden Osprey Tower. The weather wasn’t the best, but that didn’t slow the girls down one bit!
They found a ’stage’ so they had to do a dance show…
After we were done at the tower, we headed to McDonald’s for lunch… I know, McDonalds’s in China on the weekend!! It was crazy busy and we ate our lunch with no less than a dozen spectators / commentators at any given moment. Thankfully the girls are China savvy and they just roll with that sort of invasion of privacy with very little annoyance.
After lunch, was the ‘real’ reason we went to McDonald’s – the playground!
I found a way to watch Gator football here in China, which is a HUGE blessing for me. College football has been one of the ‘luxuries’ from home that I’ve missed most in my 9 years living in East Asia. The only downside – the games are all on in the middle of the night or early Saturday morning! Oh well, I can make sacrifices!
If you are reading this, you probably already know that I am a huge Gator fan (class ‘96) and also a big fan of Tim Tebow, arguably one of the best to have ever played college football! So this morning I’m watching Florida put the finishing touches on a Kentucky Fried Blowout and then my heart stopped when I saw this;
I mean, I’ve seen Tebow hit people, and get hit by people so hard that it makes you start to believe some of the ‘Chuck Norris’ and ‘Superman’ quotes (aka Tebowisms) that always seem to float around Tebow. So to see him laying motionless on that field made me go numb. My brother, who was listening to Gator radio (via the internet), and I were discussing what might have happened – both of us stunned. Then after coming back from commercial I got to see a visibly dazed and wobbly Tebow walk off the field. Whew!
I felt better about things, but was still unsettled. It was obvious that the ‘worst’ had not happened and that Tebow was not paralyzed or otherwise seriously injured, but it was also obvious that he was not right. My brother joked that they were going to have to hide Tebow’s helmet to keep him from coming back into the game.
I didn’t come to that, in fact he was taken out on a golf cart and then eventually left the stadium in an ambulance while the game was still on-going.
Tim Tebow has been known to put a favorite quote from the Bible on his eyeblack that he wears in the games. In this game, he wore Isaiah 40:31 which says
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
I’m not exactly sure of all the reasons that this passage is meaningful to Tebow, I can take a few guesses considering his background. What is interesting to me is verse 30 that precedes this quote;
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
I’m confident that Tebow will play again, but even if he did not, he’s the kind of person who has more going for him than just football, and he’d be okay. He seems to have the proper perspective on what is important in life, and while everyone else might have been calling him ‘Superman’, I have a feeling he understood the truth in Isaiah 40:30! Let’s pray for ‘renewed strength’ for Tebow in the next few weeks as he recovers.
The weather seems to have started cooling off around here, marking what I think is the end of summer. Wow! This summer flew by too quickly! I guess it was all the fun I was having.
The Fall ‘09 semester has arrived and I’ve been very busy juggling several responsibilities. As most of you may know, last year I taught a course on the Society & Culture of English Speaking Countries. Well, I’m teaching that class again this year. In addition to that, I’m also heading up a new program at my university that focuses on cross-cultural topics, specifically the things that would be helpful for those who are preparing to go abroad for study or work.
We’ve been in the planning stages for the past month or so with the first class set to begin the second week in October. I have no idea how many students I’ll have or what the level of English I’ll be dealing with… it should be fun!
I was surfing for some college football news and I came across the above video. Most of you who know me, know that I LOVE college football, I LOVE the Florida Gators and that living in China, I don’t get to watch any live football games.
I’m okay with that, I’m willing to give that up. But when this video also has to very prominently display that it is the “Dr. Pepper” drive for the championship… well, that’’s just rubbing it in!
Go Gators!
Hi! I'm Steve Webel and this is my blog. Thanks for stopping by!Follow me on Twitter.
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