Every now and again, I type random words into You Tube’s search engine hoping to come across an interesting video.  I stumbled across this one not too long ago, and thought I would share it.  The little girl is just too precious.

The video was filmed in the most beautiful part of China that I visited – Yangshuo.  It’s one of those places that you have to see to truly appreciate.  No picture or video do the landscape justice.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqiXw7nqw6k[/youtube]

I decided to check the in-box of my old Yahoo Mail account the other day.  I check it every now and again to see if anyone may have sent an email there instead of to my new Gmail account.  Apparently, it had been a long while since I last checked it because I had 1126 messages waiting for me when I signed in.  Of the 1126 messages that I sifted through, 1125 of them were spam.  The one email that wasn’t spam had been sent accidentally by Phil many months ago.   Of the remaining 1125 messages that had infiltrated by in-box, one in particular caught my eye.  The title of the message is what made me click on it.  I just couldn’t turn down a part time job in helping eradicate the Native Ninjas.  🙂

Here is the first part of the message.  The rest of it was your normal boring spam message and I won’t bore you with it.  I wish all of my spam emails were as amusing as this one!

HUNGYAN HAOLONG AGRO ALLIED PLASTICS & MOULD CO. LTD
JINGQI ROAD WEST INDUSTRY ZONE HUNGYAN CHINA 31802

Forgive me for intruding on your personal space and microwaving your hamster, especially as we have never met before. Please be aware that I do not want to offer this position to the native ninja’s that are running amok in your country.

The image below wasn’t included in the email, of course, but I wanted to post it anyway. I found it by randomly searching for ninja images.  It made me laugh.

Quantum is a very inquisitive, destructive beast.  You have to watch him very carefully when he’s out if his cage.  If it can be chewed, he chews it.  He has more or less destroyed each and every one of our books on our bookshelf, especially if it has anything to do with China. You should see what he has done to my purple folder that contains a lot miscellaneous paperwork from when we were teachers in China.  It doesn’t even look like a folder anymore.  I don’t know why he likes to chew so much.  I don’t think Countess chews like he does.  Maybe it is a guy thing or something.

He also likes to grab things and take off with them, too.  I constantly find things that he has hidden in the couch.  One day, I found a USB device that he had taken.  Sometimes he really reminds me of a monkey, especially when he throws his food around.  He is such a silly guy.

The following video is of craptastic quality, but what can you expect of any camera in a dim room?  Because Quantum and Countess are nocturnal, we have to keep the lights turned down low.  We don’t want to hurt their eyes.  Also, a portion of the video is upside down.  I didn’t know it was filming like that when I first picked up the iPhone.  And lastly, sorry for the expletive that Phil uses.  You would probably yell too if a Sugar Glider clamped down on your finger.  They may have little teeth, but it hurts like the dickens!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqmwKX3-CA[/youtube]

Not long after we arrived and started teaching English in Fuyang, we got to experience the holiday known as Teacher’s Day.  This is a day when students thank their teachers for all of their hard work and sometimes present them with little gifts.  I knew of the holiday before coming to China, but I didn’t expect the students to give either Phil or I anything, for like I said, we had just started teaching.  I didn’t think it was possible for them to like us enough to by anything for us, given the amount of time they had known us.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I came home from work and found a carved watermelon wishing Phil a Happy Teacher’s Day sitting on the kitchen table.  I’m sure I imagined several gifts that the students might give us, but I don’t think that a carved watermelon was one of them.  I was quite impressed.  The student put a lot of work into it.

During our six months there, Phil got all sorts of gifts from his students – ranging from greeting cards to Final Fantasy posters to Hello Kitty stuffed toys.  Phil’s students were loads nicer than mine ever were.

And just in case you don’t know what a carved watermelon looks like – here you go!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRPim03J8cc[/youtube]

Fireworks were a common occurrence in China, both during the day and at night, and even more so during holidays like Chinese New Year.  I felt all of the fireworks shot of during the day were wasted, though, because you couldn’t really enjoy the bright, exploding colors.  You could never escape the big booms, though, which always made me think I was in the middle of a war zone.

The following video is of some fireworks being set off right outside of my apartment in Fuyang during the middle of the day.  I have no idea what they were celebrating – perhaps a marriage or something like it.  It went on for sometime.  I wish it had been at night, for at least then there would have been something to see.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8n7THA1sGs[/youtube]

I started going through some of my old videos tonight, and sadly, there just aren’t many worth showing.  There is this one video of Phil and I singing the Ghostbuster’s theme song at KTV in Shanghai, but Phil won’t let me post it. Maybe if enough of you ask nicely, he’ll cave and allow me to embarrass the both of us.

I was however able to find a video that showcases the largest lit up Coca-Cola bottle that I have ever seen.  The angle of course blows.  Phil forgot that his camera didn’t adjust, at least, that is what I am assuming.

I’ll keep looking for some videos to share and try thinking of something interesting to say here in the next few days.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxD-SyOQoNc[/youtube]

BR-37353

The back of the postcard had this to say about the Amazon Theater Opera House :

Built in architectural European Style, the majestic Amazon Theater was inaugurated in 1896 and became a national property in 1966.  The concert hall is in the form of a horseshoe and has capacity for 701, including three floors of box seats.  In the external area stands a dome with 36,000 ceramic tiles in the colors of the national flag.  Built during the Amazon rubber boom, it is synonymous with glamor and richness.

I was curious as to how the inside looked, so I did some searching on the web, but was only really able to find one decent picture that showcased the theaters’ opulence.

I think it is rather impressive.  Someone definitely put a lot of thought and detail into it.  The ceiling looks like it has a painted design.  I’m sure the pictures don’t do the building justice, like many things in life.

I’ve never been to an opera before.  People say that they are emotional and powerful, but I’m not a big fan of the way opera sounds.  In Xiamen, China, a troop came to our neighborhood and put on a Chinese Opera.  I swear it lasted all day, and it was by far the loudest, most annoying thing I have ever heard so far in my life.  Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had I walked down the street and watched it.  Who knows?

CN-25794

When I got this card, I was excited because it was my first card from China.  When I read the back of the card, and found out where it had come from, I was even more excited.  Of all of the places in the world that a postcard could have been sent from, this postcard was sent from Xiamen, China, the city I lived in for six months.

Gulangyu is a beautiful little island.  I loved to go there and just walk around because it was quiet – at least once you got off the ferry and ran past the vultures trying to sell you over priced crap.  They loved to try and sell you those annoying magnetic rocks.  It was also quiet because cars are not allowed on the island.  If you want to go anywhere, you either have to walk or take an electric golf cart – which isn’t free.  The island is small, though, so walking isn’t a big deal.

Also, when you are on the island, you sorta feel like you have been transported somewhere in Europe because almost all of the buildings look like the one above – very Victorian.  Why are there Victorian style buildings on a Chinese island?  Well, the island was populated by foreigners for many years following the Treaty of Nanking in 1842.  Most of the buildings were offices and residences of Consulate-Generals.

Guylanyu is particularly famous for its Piano Museum – the only one of its kind in China.  I didn’t visit the museum when I was there, but I’m sure it’s nice.  There are speakers throughout the island that constantly play piano music.  It’s very relaxing.

Another awesome thing about Gulangyu are the trees.  Compared to many other parts of China that I saw, Gulangyu has lots of old trees.  You can sorta see how big they are in the picture.

If you ever find yourself on Gulangyu, I suggest that you either bring some bug spray or leave the island before the sun starts to set.  When I was there I was attacked by the most ferocious mosquitoes.  For a week, I had the biggest, reddest, itchiest mosquito bites that I have ever had in my life.  Mosquitoes don’t normally bother me too much, but man, these were absolutely horrible!

The back of the postcard said the name of the building was Eight Diagram Pagoda, but I don’t think that is right.  For one, the building does not look like a pagoda at all.

If you are visiting Xiamen, you can take the ferry for free to Gulangyu, but when you want to leave, you have to pay one yuan to get back.  Tricky little devils, eh?  You also have the choice to take the ferry, or pay a little extra to take a speed boat.  Unless you are in a huge rush, take the ferry.

Oh, and if you haven’t noticed, I have uploaded all of my postcards.  To see them, click on the photo tab and then click gallery.

This is going to be a teaser post because I don’t want to reveal what exactly we have done until I have pictures.

On Sunday, Phil woke me up bright and early at about 8:30 AM.  This is highly unusual because Phil loves to sleep all day.  Usually, it’s me asking him to get out of bed so that we can enjoy the day doing something outdoors.  And he hates me for it.  So, I guess he was just trying to give me a taste of my own medicine.  Well, anyway, half asleep, Phil informs me that I need to get up and get dressed because we are driving to Atlanta to get some lamb.  Why do we need to go all the way to Atlanta to get lamb, you ask?  There is a grocery store there called Super H Mart, and it sells all sorts of yummy, Asian goodness – food – not people.  Particularly, they sell thinly sliced lamb that we love.  We fell in love with it in China and it was by far our favorite dish.  When we last went to Atlanta in July, we bought several pounds of it.  Seven months later, our supply is nearly gone.  Since having no lamb in the house would make us unhappy, it seemed like a great idea.  An hour later, we were in the car and on our way to Atl.

30 minutes away from our destination, we came across the Pendergrass Flea Market.  The place is huge and I mean HUGE.  Phil had been there before, but since I hadn’t, he wanted to let me see it.  The place was a complete mad house.  There were people everywhere.  It took something like ten minutes to find a parking place!  Once inside we strolled around seeing if there was anything worth buying.  I really didn’t see anything, I never really do at flea markets, but Phil found a Playstation 1 controller that he needed.  Phil thought they had animals, so we walked around looking for any they might have. We didn’t see any at first.  As we were just about to leave I saw a sign with pets written in red, pointing down a hall way. I think it was the one area we hadn’t looked before giving up.  Why does that always seem to happen?

I’ll give you this much:

It’s cute.

It’s furry.

It’s about 9 weeks old and weighs about 1 oz.

It isn’t native to South Carolina or any state for that matter.

I’ve wanted once since I first saw them at an exotic pet show at Jamil Temple years and years ago.

He makes the strangest, but cutest sounds ever.

He’s nocturnal by nature.

And his name is Quantum.

And for the record, this was totally Phil’s idea.  I just gave him permission.

Can you guess what it is?  I’ll take some pictures of him soon.  He’s a little scared right now, and I don’t want my camera to cause him any more stress. I imagine that when he gets acquainted with his surroundings – he is going to become a regular on this little blog.  I hope you all like him as much as Phil and I do.

PS My boss said that I just need to get married and have a baby.  Whereas I am sure that would help with the need to have something to love at all times,  human babies aren’t furry and they don’t purr.

A long time ago, I created a post that asked who my readers were.  I was curious.  Most bloggers are.  And well, I’m still curious.  Plus, I think enough time has passed to take roll again.  I’m pretty sure that my viewers have changed a little since I left China and started writing about my daily life here.

So, if you would be so kind to drop me a comment, letting me know you are, how you found me, or anything else you feel like sharing, I would greatly appreciate it.

The last time I did this, I got six comments.  This go around, I am going to shoot for the stars and hope for eight.  If you commented last time, and you are still with me – thanks.  Feel free to leave me some love again.  🙂 Comments, as you know, make me extremely happy.