Every once and awhile, I try to get creative with the pictures I take.  The other night, after scarfing down some yummy KFC, Phil and I decided to walk along the river.  Of all the ones I took, this is the only one that I liked.  I wish the lighting had been a little better, then you could have seen the way that he was holding his hands behind his back.  For some reason, that is how a lot of Chinese people hold their hands, especially if they are walking.  I’ve caught myself doing it a few times. I must admit, it is comfortable.

It was a dreary day in Linyi, and because we didn’t have anything else better to do, we decided to go to an Art Expo being held down the street that we were invited to.  It was supposedly a big deal because a lot of high officials were going to be there.  And of course, they wanted some foreign faces to dress up the crowd a bit.  They promised us fun and food,  so we really couldn’t say no.

A caravan of cars showed up at the school expecting more than three willing participants.  Needless to say, they were a bit disappointed  that no one else wanted to brave the rain. They had me knocking on doors to see if there were any other last minute tag alongs, but there were no takers.

When we got there we were taken to a VIP room where two pretty Chinese women pinned roses on us.  Apparently, it indicated we were VIP’s.  When we started taking pictures of the exhibits, there were people taking pictures of us like we were on display.  It was humorous.

VIP Phil

VIP Gabe

If it hadn’t have been for the chair and the umbrella, I think this would have been an awesome picture.

I don’t know if you can tell, but that isn’t food.  It is jade and other stones made to look like dishes of food.  Neat.

One of the many pieces of artwork we saw.

Another piece.

I think this section of the expo was stone that had been naturally shaped and just happened to look like something we could recognize.

A naturally formed stone that looks like it is painted.  Looks like a Chinese village.

One creepy ass looking spider-dog.

Nice presentation, but I still couldn’t bring myself to eat the entire thing.  I made my host happy by eating the tail, and that was enough to almost make me hurl.

Hrm.  Nothing all that exciting has been happening lately, at least nothing I have felt was really blog worthy.  I take my camera every where I go, though, and occasionally I will snap a picture of something neat.  The weather has gotten a lot better here in the last few weeks.  It is now umbrella and belly weather.  By that I mean, all the girls have umbrellas with them where ever they go.  They don’t like to get any sun.  The whiter you are the better.  And the men roll up their shirts and show off their big beer bellies for all the world to see.  It’s pretty funny.  I’ll try to get a picture of that soon.

In about a month and some change, Phil and I will get to enjoy a two month vacation.  I know we intend to travel, but I don’t know where yet.  I keep flipping through my guide books, but I haven’t decided on a place or an area.  There are so many interesting places I want to see.  I wish we had a little more money so we could do more, but so is life.  We really want to take a trip to Japan, but the plane tickets are pricey.  And I don’t even want to know how much it would cost to eat, sleep there, and sight see.  I am sure we could afford to go, but there wouldn’t be a lot of money left over to really do anything.  Walking around would be fun, I guess.  We’ll see.

And now for some random pictures.

Cheaper than Pizza Hut.  Not as good, but not bad.

Almost too cute to eat.  Those are red beans for his eyes and nose.

It is strange.  We have a lot of water ways in Linyi, but I never see anyone fishing.  This was the first time I have seen Cormorants here.  I have no idea how they fit four boats into that little truck.

I see a lot of strange things in China, but this just about had me rolling in the streets.

You can stumble upon the strangest things in China, including cars drifting in parking lots.  The video below is from Qufu, China.  It was one of the very first things we saw when we left our hostel to get some grub the first night we were there.  The yellow car in the video did a much better job, and was actually what caught my attention, but by the time I pulled out my camera, it was the next car’s turn.  I really did expect the car to loose control at some point and crash into the wall. I love China.  It is always surprising me and making me say, “What?  Did I just see that?”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klftxpecQ3Y[/youtube]

I always seem to start out my posts with, a few something or other ago, Phil and I did this or went here . . .  I suppose I just take too long to actually get whatever it is that we did posted. I’ll try to get better at it.  Now that Phil and I can use both of our computers at the same time, that may actually be possible.  Hooray, for wireless!!  Right now, I am enjoying  a wonderful three day vacation because Monday is Labor Day.  In years previous, it used to be a week long vacation, but this is the first year it has only been a day – at least I think that is right.  I really don’t know why they changed it, but I suppose they had a good reason.

Last weekend, Phil and I decided to change up our scenery a little by going to Qufu.  The city is famous because Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, was born there.  He also taught there and of course, that is where he was buried.  See the map below to get an idea of where it is located in China.  Qufu is only about two hours north-west of Linyi by train.  When we went to buy our tickets a few days in advance, I had no idea how much they were going to cost, but was pleasantly surprised to find a soft seat only cost 24 yuan.  I saw another lady with a ticket to Beijing and her ticket said 113 yuan, but I don’t know if that was for a soft seat, hard seat, or standing only.  Yes, they do sell standing only tickets.  Those were the only ones available to us coming back.  I get to that later.

Getting to Qufu wasn’t a problem at all.  Phil and I had to battle the crowd on the train and peel back our sardine can to breath better, but that is a train in China for you.  I was just happy to have seats.  When we first got on, we did find that our seats were already occupied, but once they saw our tickets, they got up.  There was no real place to put our backpacks, so we had put them in our laps.  That was fun.  At least it was only a two hour ride.

Five or six stops later, one of the girls we were sitting by said, in English, that we had arrived.  The train only stops for a minute or so, so you have to book it to the platform . . . except in our case, there was no platform to walk out on to.  The car that we were in had stopped short of it and we had to jump down to the gravel.  It wasn’t that far, really, but with a big backpack on, it felt farther.  When I landed, the weight of my bag nearly made me fall flat on my face.  While we were walking to the platform, the train station employees kept telling us to step away from the train . . . but there wasn’t much space between the train and the wall, so they yelled at us until we got to a point along the path that they deemed safe.

It was about nine at night when we got to the Qufu train station.  When we walked out front, there were no taxis or anything.  For a moment, we wondered how we were going to make it to our hostel, but then a little old woman walked up to us and asked where we needed to go.  She pulled out her cell phone after we told her and we could hear her telling the person she was talking to that she had some foreigners that needed a ride.  A few moments later, a taxi showed up, and off we went.  The guy didn’t use his meter, and I really didn’t care.  He only got an extra five or so yuan.

The only thing bad about some hostels, is that they have a curfew.  After getting to the hostel, checking in and getting a bit settled, we only had an hour to find some place to eat.  When I asked the lady at the front desk if there were any places open, she smiled and said that maybe if we were lucky we would find something.  I guess we were lucky.  Just down the street, we found a fast food chicken restaurant called CNHLS.  I have no idea how you pronounce that, but I heard another foreigner calling it Knuckles.  It sorta looks like that . . . I guess.  The restaurant was a lot like KFC or the KFC look alike, Dico’s.  The food wasn’t bad and it was cheap.  After we got done eating, we ran back to the hostel, and luckily got back before they closed their doors.

We awoke the next morning to beautiful weather and birds chirping.  The sky was actually blue.  This made me very happy.  Below is the picture of the courtyard at the hostel where you can eat or chill.  It was very nice.

The first thing  on our to do list was to visit the cemetery where Confucius was buried, along with the rest of his descendants.  Apparently, people are still being buried there today.  After seeing it myself, I told Phil that when I finally kick the bucket, he is to convince the people of Qufu that I am distant, distant relative of Confucius – it was just that pretty.   I’ll stop with the chatter for a bit, so that you can enjoy the pictures.

One way to travel around Qufu.

The entrance to the cemetery.

Path leading into the cemetery.  Lots of old trees on either side.

These birds were all over the cemetery.  So pretty.

We must have come at the perfect time.  These purple flowers were every where.

Here is what one looks like up close.

Random tombstone.

I am not sure of the significance, but this one guy kept trying to throw some coins on top of the statue’s folded arms.

Confucius’ Tomb.

Another view of the tomb.

I took a billion pictures while I was there, this is just one that I liked.

A pretty twisted tree.

More pretty pictures.

The no smoking tomb.

Dry water bed.

After we finished walking around the cemetery, we decided to head back into town.  We went back to that “Knuckles” place and ate some more chicken.  After that, we waked around and did a whole lot of nothing the rest of the day.  And we did the same the next day, too.  There were more things we could have done, but I didn’t feel like shelling out money for some of the attractions, and plus, I was a bit tired.  I didn’t mind relaxing.

Phil and his Chicken.  He loves meat more than me sometimes.

A park we stumbled across in Qufu.

This was at the top of a man-made mountain.

Some crazy Wisteria.

Chinese Mermaids.

Found this on the back window of a car.  Weird.

Okay, last but not least, our trip home.  It happened like this.  We stood on the platform and waited for the train to roll up.  Of course, the place we were told to wait was not where the door stopped, so we had to run down to where it was.  The train was already stuffed full of people, so it was really, really hard to squeeze ourselves and our bags on.  A Chinese man kept yelling at everyone to squeeze harder.

Phil and I, before we left Linyi, had bought some folding chairs because we knew that we would be standing.  Our seats were almost useless because there was absolutely no room to put them.  After the train started moving and the people started spreading out into the aisles, we finally found a place in between where one car started and the other ended.  Let me tell you, it was one bumpy ride.  The cars constantly shook.  And every 5 minutes, someone needed to make their way through us, so we had to keep standing up and sitting down, much to the amusement of every person watching us.  We were the only foreigners in our section.

About an hour into our ride, a man in uniform came walking through our area with two Swedish people.  We asked them where they were going and they said that they thought he was going to give them seats.  I looked at the guy in uniform and asked if we were supposed to go with him, too. Our conversation was mostly in hand gestures because I had no idea how to say what I needed to in Chinese.  He told us yes, and off we went.  The four of us walked through 8 packed cars of young people, old people, and monks before we reached the seats they had provided us.  If it hadn’t been for my over sized back pack, it probably wouldn’t have been so bad.  When we finally plopped out butts down, I was so tired and sweaty, it was amazing.  I felt special, though, that they had made room for us.  I guess they thought that the foreigners should not be standing in the smoking section for the entirety of their journey.  I must say, it was a very nice gesture.

Fuzzy Phil.

And Fuzzy, Gabe.  Not a flattering picture – AT ALL.

And that was our journey in a nut shell.  Can’t wait until we go to Qingdao or some other city near by.

Thanks to my Dad, I can now upload my videos to YouTube and show them to you here.  The following video is of me feeding the pigeons located at the People’s Square.  You pay the attendant 2 yuan and he/she gives you a small plastic bag with some seed. When watching the video, you can hear the attendant yelling at a little boy who comes up to me and grabs one of the birds by its’ tail.  She is saying something like, “Just look! Just look!”   Of course, the boy doesn’t listen and grabs anyway.  I felt really bad for the bird.

Phil and I went to Qufu this weekend, and I have some picture and videos that I will be posting soon. I just have to allot some time to do it.  Well, anyway, enjoy the video!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpkuVLktKSI[/youtube]

I love lamb.  It is by far my favorite meat, but only when it is prepared Chinese style.  It typically comes in one of two forms: thinly sliced and put on top of your vegetables and rice  or placed in front of you and six of your closest friends who are waiting to devour it whole.    And I am not exaggerating at all when I say whole.  See for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Our dinner was a going away party for two expats that we’ve come to know in our short time in Linyi.  I am sad to see them go, but they are moving on to bigger and better things, as do most expats.  The meal was fantastic.  I have only ever had a leg of lamb or the slices of lamb that I mentioned earlier, but never have I been given the opportunity to pick meat off the entire animal before.   Lamb may be awesome, but every time I eat it, especially this particular time, I always think about how cute and fluffy white they are.  It makes it hard when I picture them being slaughtered and prepared just for my pleasure.  It is images like this that make me want to become a vegetarian sometimes.

And here is what our little lamb looked like after we picked his bones clean.

I think we could have picked more meat off, but at this point we were all pretty stuffed and ready for bed.  I believe that between the entire lamb, 12 beers, two plates of bread, and some vegetables for dipping, the total came to 536 yuan.  That is approximately 78 USD, and between 7 people that cost each of us 11 dollars.  In America, I can’t imagine how much all that would have cost.

I know that it is really hard to see, but this is the area where they cook the lamb. Looks pretty medieval, eh?

I know one thing for certain, I will be coming back to place soon.  It was just that good.

Mom, Dad, don’t hate me.  I couldn’t resist.  You have to admit, though, I do look awesome!  I hear there are some great Obamao t-shirts in Beijing.  Google it; I am sure there are plenty of images out there.  I’m going to have to pick one up when I go.  I think it will make a great souvenir.  I wonder what would happen if a bunch a people showed up at a Democratic rally wearing them.  Tehe.

Gabe, the Party Member.

A few Saturdays ago, Phil and I were invited to go to a strawberry farm with a lady who works in my office.  This may come as a surprise, but I cannot remember ever going strawberry picking in South Carolina, even though we have many farms in the area.  I’ve only just bought them at roadside stands.  Phil said that his elementary school took him on a few field trips.   I guess my school wasn’t as cool as his.

There were six of us all together – all couples.  I guess it was supposed to be a relationship building activity or something.  🙂 The farm was just outside of the city, maybe twenty or so minutes.   Once you leave the city area of Linyi, the tall buildings fall away, and the landscape turns into farms.  There are vegetable farms and tree farms as far your eyes can see.  They all sorta just blend together after awhile.  This is why I never would have known the strawberry farm was there had the car not pulled over.  There were no visible sign or anything, at least not that I could tell.  I am not sure what sort of farm I imagined in my head before we got there, but I can tell you that I had no idea just how big the farm was going to be.  It was like Strawberry Heaven.  I have never seen so many strawberry plants in all my life.

One of the greenhouses.

One of the Strawberry Heavens.

Phil picking some strawberries.

Walking through the paths were hard.  I kept stepping on strawberries.

Some pretty strawberries.  Tasted pretty, too.

My hair is sorta the color of strawberries.

After we picked several boxes, we were driven to a restaurant in the country where we were going to have lunch. We had told the friend we went with what some of our favorite dishes were, but we didn’t get any of those.  Instead, we were severed traditional country foods or at least what I imagine to be traditional country foods.  We were served a plate of cicadas, testicles, cold chicken with a strange gooey sauce, and cold pigs feet.  I somehow was able to eat a cicada, but I said absolutely no to the testicles.  I really don’t know why Phil ate one.  Maybe he was feeling a little adventurous or something.  I’m not sure what made us sick as dogs, but the entire next day was spent throwing up and sitting on the pot.  We are no longer taking part in exotic country foods.  Our stomachs will not allow to ever happen again.   When we went to leave, I told my friend I had to stop in the bathroom for a second.  When she told me to be careful, all sorts of images flooded my mind.  I was like, “What is there to be careful of in a bathroom.”  I soon found out what she meant.  Thankfully, I had experienced something like it before, so I wasn’t too terribly bothered by what I saw.  There is no such thing as a western toilet in the middle of no where.  I was lucky to have a trough.  Scroll down to see, but I warn you, it isn’t a pretty sight.  I took a picture only because I wanted you all to understand, not because I have some weird fetish for dirty bathrooms.

Pretty picture on the wall where we ate lunch.

99 bottles of beer on the wall . . .

Cicadas = protein. I hope I never have to eat these when the Apocalypse begins.

Baijiu tree.

Probably the last picture of a toilet I will ever take.

The other night, Phil, Bo, and I decided to take a midnight run to McDonald’s to grab some burgers and hot fudge sundaes.  I had been craving a sundae for at least a week and really wanted to get one.  We probably should have just stayed home and gone to bed because our physicals were the next day and we had to get up at the crack of dawn, but we just could not say no to the American arches.

So, we did what any sensible, hungry American without a car would do; we hailed a taxi.  We had only done this a hundred other times, so we weren’t worried that we wouldn’t make it to our destination.  Linyi only has one McDonald’s and everyone and his brother knows where it is.  Or so we thought.  The first taxi we saw didn’t acknowledge us, but that was fine because another one was right behind it.

The particular cab that we jumped in only had one working head light and the body of the car felt like it was held together by a few strings of imagination. A few snips here and few snips there, and I think we would have had a Flintstones moment.  We all hopped in and told the driver that we wanted to go to Mai Dang Lao.  He repeated our destination and off we went.

Everything started out just fine.  The taxi was going in the right direction and we were getting closer and closer to fast food bliss, but then we noticed that the taxi driver passed the normal turn and then another turn that he could have taken, even though it would have been a little out of the way.  And then we were no where near where we needed to be.  Just as we were about to speak up and say something, the taxi driver did a u-turn and started back the way we came.

Again, the taxi driver passed the normal turn.  We looked down at the taxi meter, saw that it read 20 yuan and decided that if he happened to get us to the golden arches, he was only going to get 10.  The three of us were completely baffled.  We had no idea where he was taking us.  It seemed as though he was taking us back to the school.  Finally, he pulled over  . . . but not next to McDonald’s.  Instead, he brought us to another fast food joint open 24 hours a day – Mr. Lee’s.

This was mind boggling.  Bo, who was sitting up front, repeated our destination, but the taxi driver just stared at him.  Then Bo mentioned the land mark right next to McDonald’s, People’s Square.  The taxi driver perked up and repeated People’s Square in Chinese.  He was all smiles, like he finally knew where he was taking us.  If only.

The taxi driver started driving again, but instead of doing a u-turn, he continued down the same road that would take us back to our school.  Within a few minutes, we passed the school’s gates.  At this point, we were pretty pissed off.  This guy was taking us on a joy ride.

I leaned up behind his seat and asked him in Chinese if he knew where we were going.  He didn’t respond.  I asked him again.  Same thing.  I asked him over and over again, every time my voice becoming more serious.  It was as though I wasn’t even there.  Phil started yelling stop in Chinese.  Again, nothing.  I was beginning to get worried, and asked Phil if we should call the police.  Phil began to considerate it an option.

Phil asked Bo to try and get his attention, and finally, the driver pulled the wax out of his ear’s.  He finally seemed to understand that we were rather pissed off and stopped the car.  We weren’t too far from the school, but we were down one of those roads that I only like taking in the day – one that isn’t likely to get a lot of traffic at 12:30 in the morning.   Phil told us to get out, and we didn’t argue.

I think it was pure luck that another taxi showed up as we stepped out.  We frantically waved him down.  As soon as he came to a stop, we jumped in.  We told him where we wanted to go, but he sat and stared at us for a minute.  He was obviously confused with what was going on.

Our crazy taxi driver decided to get out of his car and started yelling at our new driver.  I wish for all the world that I knew what he was saying.  They exchanged a few words, but our taxi didn’t budge.  Our new driver looked over at Phil, who was now in the front seat and said something, God only knows what.  Phil began telling him, with his limited Chinese, what had happened and that the guy standing in front of our taxi was one crazy man.  A few more words were exchanged and the crazy taxi driver walked over to Phil’s window.  Why our driver did what he did next, I don’t know, but it made me very, very nervous.  He rolled down Phil’s window.  The two began exchanging words.  It was pretty obvious what he wanted.  He wanted his 28 yuan.

Phil is a pretty patient fellow, but at this point he was about ready to strangle this guy.  So, he did what any sensible, angry American would do.  He threw a few f-bombs out the window. It’s amazing what a f-bomb will do.   Perhaps sensing that he wasn’t going to win this battle, the crazy taxi guy turned around and headed back to his car.

Phil told our newly acquired taxi driver again where we wanted to go, and off we went.  Ten minutes later, we were sitting at McDonald’s wondering why in the world it hadn’t been that easy it the first place.