Fire Jumping Day

Three weeks and a day after the start of the new year Spring Festival comes to an end.  And what an end it is!  Everyone takes down their red decorations, the red couplets and red lanterns, and throws them into a fire.  I think most people (especially those in this country) have at least somewhat of an "inner pyro" and who doesn't enjoy a reason to make a fire.  It doesn't just stop there, as the name of the holiday suggests, not only do you light stuff on fire, but then you have to jump over it!  To mix it up add even more excitement, occasionally someone will throw some firecrackers in the fire, attempting to time initial explosion when someone is jumping over.  Everyone "jumps" the fire, from babies (who are just swung over by a parent) to the elderly.  I think the purpose of all of this is to burn off the past, start fresh, and scare away evil spirits.

My apartment complex gathering around the fire outside
of our front gate

Red couplets on our door

Red couplets in the fire, they add dried brush to make it bigger

A small fire

The one legged hop/swing leg over

Jumping over a small fire

Jumping through a larger fire

Did I jump a fire?  Yes, yes I did.  I even jumped through the one in the video above because I wasn't about to be shown up by my 10 year old neighbor.  Somehow, I don't think this would go over so well in America.

Hidden Potential

This afternoon I was with a couple of the other staff in one of the supermarkets.  They were looking for a new shower curtain for one of our apartments and I was perusing the aisles, that's when I saw it!  To probably almost everyone else, it's just a rolling pin, but I saw much more potential in it than just rolling out dough to make noodles.  It just so happens that it can almost double as an escrima stick or kali!  (That's the weapon  I chose to study in karate... it's a Filipino weapon and the word "escrima" is Spanish for "fencing")  It's slightly tapered at each end, but that's only about the last inch or so on either side, not typically where you grip it.  I'm pumped to start practicing with it.  :)

It reminds me of a movie I recently watched.  It is the new Jackie Chan (or Chen Long over here) movie titled "Shaolin."  In the movie Jackie's character is the cook at the Shaolin temple, as a child he was never able to focus enough to study kungfu and subsequently became the cook.  In the kitchen you see him kneading huge mounds of dough and tossing vegetables in a giant wok.  Half way through the movie he has a conversation with one of the kungfu masters and the master says that kungfu lives in everything we do and he was able to focus enough to become a cook.  As is typical in most Jackie Chan movies, the temple comes under attack and he is the last line of defense so he uses his cooking techniques to defeat the invading forces.  (Sorry if I ruined the movie for you, but come on... it's fairly obvious what's going to happen.)  The rolling pin/escrima seems to go along with the spirit of the movie. 

brand names

On a stroll through the supermarket today, I noticed some new items on the shelves.  The products themselves didn't interest me as much as their names.  Around here they like to put English on their products, it's cooler I guess.  With that said, sometimes it is just a jumble of English letters, although that is more typical on clothes, but often it is just poorly translated.  I often wonder what the it says in the original language, but my abilities are no where near good enough to being able to do that yet.  Back to the supermarket, near the chips aisle, there was "Lonely God."  I'm guessing this was some sort of salty snack similar to chips or crackers... some of it seaweed flavored.  In a center display, there were several varieties of "chocolate" bars, I use quotations because the majority of their chocolate is... well... I'll just say lacking.  Yes, sad, but true.  Anyways, in the display there were "Holy Times" chocolate bars.  I doubt that the taste will be anywhere close to what might be called "holy" if you can even describe taste in that term, but my roommate and I decided to buy one and give it a try.  It at least seems more appetizing than seaweed chips.  Even if the chocolate doesn't turn out so great it's at least worth a good laugh. 

and we're back...

I know it's been a while, a lot has been going since break started.  The winter English camp is done, we are back from traveling, settled in our new apartment, and finally have internet working (on one computer).  Over the next little bit I will work on getting this back up to date.  Check back soon!  :)

PS - I am going to post the new entries according to when they happened so start back at the beginning of January and work your way up.  You can "Blog Archive" in the right hand column (currently to the right of this post) to view my earlier posts.

PLC Day ii

We showed the visitors around the school and had a service together.  Then lunch with the Grade 2 students.  Went hat shopping, but you can check that out in the previous post.  The Grade 1 students checked into the hotel this afternoon.  We had a big dinner to kick things off with some of our school officials and "big potatoes" (their version of "big cheese").  That was followed by an ice breaker/get to know you activity.  Not too much else today. The real fun starts tomorrow.

Random fact:  One of the things I enjoy about hotels here is the floor rug in the elevator.  They tell you what day of the week it is.

How many carts can fit on one truck bed?  I'm guessing they could add some more, but I don't want to be that driver on a steep winding downhill because I'm sure by weight it is overloaded as is. 

New hat

It has been quite cold here lately so I have finally broken out my winter hat to help keep my head and ears warm.  It is a navy blue knit hat that is more sporty than fashionable and fits snugly on my head.  Last night we had dinner with the Grade 2 students and the American team.  I was looking at a hat one of the girls at our table had and that turned into a conversation about how they thought I should get a hat.  Knowing that the girl I sat next to enjoys shopping, I suggested that she could take me hat shopping sometime.  She suggested tomorrow after our lunch (also with the Grade 2 students and Americans).  I was a little surprised because I was thinking about sometime after break (like in March), but seeing how much she really wanted to do it and knowing I had a little free time I agreed.

We poled some people at dinner and at again at lunch today and the overwhelming majority said I should get a red hat... go figure, it's the favorite color over here, I guess it's good I like red too and it goes well with my black jacket.  After lunch we set out for what the Americans call the "International Market" although it is more accurately translated "Market City" which it really is and there's really nothing "international" about it.  We weaved through the maze of shops and booths, from one building to the next, checking out the different options.  I don't know how many different hats I tried on; it seemed the shop keepers kept suggesting ones that I would rather not be caught dead in and at least my friend agreed.  We ended up going back to the first shop we stopped at to buy a simple one... no bling and no bows... haha. 

I not only have a new red hat, but more importantly I spent some time with one of our students, who can be a tough cookie to crack, doing something that she really enjoyed and also giving her the opportunity to help me.  I passed by her later that day on my way up to school and I was wearing my new hat, she had a huge grin on her face.  I hope this opens the door some to get to know her a little more.

PLC Day i

Before you ask, PLC is abbreviation of our winter English camp, PL is our city's initials and the C stands for Connection, which happens to be a very apt description of what it is.

During the PLC we (all the staff, students, and visiting American team) stay together in a hotel.  This morning we heading out to the nearby hotel (a different one than what we had been planning on up until about two weeks ago) and started getting things ready.  We hung names signs on the doors of each room our group is staying in and put together info packets for everyone.  Things went very smoothly and we even had some extra time to spare before Chris and the American team arrived.  Their trip went smoothly as well.

It was great to see some more familiar faces as they came off the bus.  We helped them get settled in and then the staff snuck out to grab lunch and then returned in time for our orientation meeting.  The orientation meeting was followed by dinner with the Grade 2 students. 

So far so good!  We have a great team here and I'm ready to get this thing started.  I'm also looking forward to being able to room with my good friend, who is our office manager, this week.  I'm hoping to capitalize and have some good conversations during our time together.