The past two weeks have been quite uneventful and common. Mid-terms occurred 2 to 3 weeks ago, so I'm been trying to completely grade those. Vance and I joined a gym in Siping and I've enjoyed meeting new friends there. The cold weather brought us our first snow at the end of last week. And I'll be going to Beijing for the weekend for Christmas shopping. Other than all of this, it's been pretty calm around here. However, I feel once December hits good ol' Siping, it'll get a little crazy.

With Thanksgiving being today, the team, along with a few other foreign teachers, will have Thanksgiving supper today. In Chinese we say 感恩节快乐! At least for today, I miss my family a little only because it is a famous holiday season in America. While they eat their turkey, they can all think of me over here.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Women refuse to give birth on Singles Day (November 20, 2008, Xinhua) An unusually small number of babies were born in Hubei Hospital of Women and Children in Wuhan on Nov 11, as mothers sought to avoid giving birth on Singles Day. Just five babies were born there that day, less than one-fourth of the average. Other major hospitals also hosted much fewer births, as many local pregnant women had Caesareans in advance or delayed their delivery. Doctors and nurses attributed the slump in births to local residents' superstitions. Many Chinese believe Singles Day is not a lucky day for childbirth in the central metropolis.

Beijing to provide winter accommodations for beggars (November 20, 2008, Xinhua) Vagrants and beggars in Beijing will be given accommodation and meals as the temperature drops to minus degree, according to the municipal relief administration center. The center announced that as of Thursday evening, staff in the city's 18 relief stations will seek out vagrants and beggars. Each station is to reinforce street patrols, check the identities of vagrants and beggars, and provide them with beds and meals. The centers will provide tickets home once identities are confirmed. Beijing has helped about 57,000 vagrants and beggars since 2003, when  China introduced a policy that replaced the "custody and repatriation" system.

Three days ago, the Club (an "English Only Restaurant") in Siping - ran by Jason (a colleague from America) - organized an "auction" of the foreign teachers. The Club advertised all money being raised to help the orphanage in Siping. So about 8 of us foreigners lined up to be sold to the highest bidders. This concept of bidding & auctioning is definitely Western as none of them had a clue how or what it looked like.

In any event, I was up first since I had a lecture to give. After a very anti-climatic bidding process (that took all but a minute) I was sold for 17 Yuan (roughly equal to $2.54). I'm worth $2.54! Mind you, the guy who "won" me was great and a wonderful conversationalist as I found out with my free meal the day after the bidding, but I'm only worth 17 Yuan. How cheap am I?! Well, there's always next year.

It is now that time of year where the northeast begins to turn frigidly cold! It's definitely winter as we're in the highs of the 40's but in the lows of the 30's (and soon the 20's). The Chinese adage of "You should wear more clothes" abounds in large amounts - as everyone tells everyone this. I honestly thinks its a form of greeting because I hear it ALL THE TIME!

The other "cold" I caught four days ago. It was two days' worth of itchy throat followed by two days of sneezing, hacking, and coughing. Today (being day five) brings a welcoming non-hacking feeling and I feel good about teaching today. So, dad, when you read this, I DO have enough NyQuil and I'm feeling much better now.

About a month ago, I launched the idea of having a bonfire-type activity for Halloween. I ran the idea by Wu and Rach about three weeks ago, and I received a green light. When I was in Changchun last, I bought marshmallows for Smores and hot dogs for the necessary ingredients.

Over the course of a week, I had the help of a student named Alan coordinate everything. He found the place, organized the wood, help get stuff to fire it up, and kept the whole thing secret from the team (as it was all a surprise). I gathered the ketchup, chips, plates, napkins, chocolate, drinks, bread, and misc. stuff. Rach provided veggies with Ranch.

The day of the event found nice weather (as in the mid-40's), clear skies, and no rain (it had been forecasted for later in the week). I rented a bus to take us from our building to the site (about 5 KM away from the school). Upon arrival, it was easy to get the fire going as Alan's uncles were there to "fire it up".

The most creative part was cooking the dogs. Earlier in the day, I commissioned Robb to locate something to use to cook the hot dogs. Wire hangers wouldn't work because all I could find were those with plastic coating. Robb located some foot-long screwdrivers. Upon sticking our dogs on these screwdrivers, we realized how easily "heated" this would become as a foot was not long enough. We located some hallowed-out bamboo and stuck the screwdrivers in them. Voila, it worked! Cooking ensued with the dogs followed by the marshmallows.

We were at the site for about three hours. We had time to sit around the fire and simply watch it burns. It had truly been a long time since I'd done that. You can see a video below then check out the album "A Heated Halloween" - thanks to Wu, Kat & Jennifer for the pics I stole!