Stranger No More

Yeah. I’m lazy.

I’ll own it.

Things have been good.
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I was recently invited to be a judge at the First Santai English Teacher’s English Speaking Contest. Yeah, it doesn’t really roll off the tongue, eh? In fact, despite this being the First, I was a judge at a very similar if somewhat smaller contest last spring. Previously the field of eight contestants wrapped up around noon but the recent contest fielded thirty-two entrants from around the county and looked to be an all day affair.

A week or so prior I was a judge at an internal school contest where four teachers vied for two positions. A bit uncomfortable, I wish I could have passed on that one since even though I was just one judge I can’t help but feel a bit awkward when discussing it later with those that were passed over. Instead I tried to focus on helping those that were selected to represent our school. The first part of the contest would be a prepared speech so that was the easiest thing to help them with. Since the time leading up to the contest was going to be busy for all of us I decided a good way to help him would be to read the speech they had prepared and record it as an mp3, (m-p-san they insist on calling it. Despite it being to English letters and a number they not only don’t think to pronounce it as m-p-3 but they think it quite funny when I do.), so they could listen and speak along at their leisure. It turned out that the prepared speech portion was just a small part but also integral in advancing to the next stage as the field was pared down to twelve. I was pretty proud that both of my teachers advanced.

Just as China has an incredible disparity between the richest rich and the poorest poor so to did this contest have an epic disparity between the best speakers and the, um, others.
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Yeah, I’ve been pretty slack about updates but I’m still here and have some great stuff to share. I expect to have time this next week to catch you all up to date on the stuff I remember - a reason to to not wait. Thanks for checking in and I’ll get back to y’all soon.

With my schedule tweaked to perfection I took off Thursday afternoon to Chengdu to hang with Evan. We were going to Leshan the next day and planning to return in time to go to Lisa’s 30th birthday party. Just play along, you’ll figure out who everyone is.

I made my way to Evan’s where we decided the head-to-Leshan-tonight plan was too late to be acted on and that if we waited until the morning then Jon could join us. We instead headed over to Dave’s Oasis for pizza and beer. Imagine my joy when Dave said he had some Newcastle Brown Ale that wasn’t on the menu. I guess you don’t have to imagine, I just told you. Yum. He also makes a great spicy chicken pizza. We hung out on the sofas while Daft Punk played and really just had a nice relaxed evening. With Jon a no show we decided that the next day would be a long one and wisely decided to call it a night.

Evan is quite a breakfast eater. I’ve never stayed with him without a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, beans and toast. I actually gain wait during even a few days spent in Chengdu. He made breakfast and we both enjoyed it. Jon met up with us and we grabbed a cab to the bus station while Big Jon grumbled about hunger. Dave had told us that a bus would depart for Leshan every 30 minutes beginning at 7:30 and Evan was optimistic about the 8:00 but I figured 8:30. We were going to be on the 9:00. Tickets in hand we decided that we would have to find Jon something to eat. I knew that Dico’s was very near and suggested it. Jon thought a fried chicken sandwich with french fries sounded like an awesome breakfast. They were a bit slow in processing his order and it was rapidly approaching 9:00. We anxiously watched for a bus to drive by when at 9:00 they turned on the lights inside the restaurant as they opened for business. Heh. Jon protectively clutched his meal in one hand and his Trans-former meal toy in the other as we trotted over to the bus station where we were quickly whisked to our waiting bus. Hooray.
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I stayed in Santai for the Chinese New Year and it was pretty amazing. In America we like to think that the Fourth of July is a pretty special day and that the fireworks are great to watch. Yeah. I enjoy the Fourth and look forward to the spectacular displays as much, (and as little), as the next American but the displays in the States are so structured and arranged that they can seem redundant and even get stale. Not so much in China. The fireworks began early in the day with lots of things going bang and a few pretty large BOOM’s as well. Not just in one specific area either.

I began walking about the town around 9:30 with the hopes of finding some dinner. Eventually I returned home because most restaurants were closed for the holiday. No doubt off to make things go boom. Along the way I stopped and bought some fireworks near where I usually rent videos. Nearly every store had a supplemental business of fireworks for sale. I was pretty quickly surrounded by some kids so I bought some to light right then much to their delight. Once back at home I cooked up some rice while the sounds of a not-so-far-away war raged outside and decided to head back out around 11:30 and boy was I in for it. I seriously could not walk more than a block without a pretty significant display of fireworks. I had run into Shirley, Reashan’s daughter, and asked her for a suggestion on where to see the fireworks from and she suggested I stay home. She may have been right but the experience I got from walking around, under and even through these spontaneous celebrations was remarkable.

I ended up, as frequently happens, at Allen Story which despite being on a tightly tree-lined street had a flurry of fire starting activities in the street in front. The number eight is a lucky number in China so the first thing I saw them light was a very large roll of 880 firecrackers. Wow. They immediately involved me in lighting simple sparklers to large 18″ square boxes that shot large roman candles into the air as well as some pretty hefty rockets. I was pretty excited. All of this was with seeming disregard to the electrical wires overhead much less the neighbors. With the large boxes beginning to clutter the street it was only necessary to keep them in a straight line so traffic could continue to pass. As rickshaws, taxi’s and police weaved through the exploding boxes I couldn’t help but smile.

As I type this, a week later, I can see roman candles lighting up the sky with red, yellow and green bursts. S’wonderful.