So being the adventurous person that I am, I decided to take the HSK (汉语水平考试). It is the test that foreigners take in China in order to prove their language success (or in my case, failure) of Chinese. It's used in employment and in advanced education (like if I wanted to pursue a degree in a Chinese university). My goal is to ONE DAY to do really well; however, this morning, this was not the day.

I traveled to Changchun with two bus loads of Koreans from my school. All of them are foreign students in our school taking the Chinese language. As students, they were probably prepared for this experience; I, on the other hand, was not. The first section was listening. There would be conversations between two people. After it was over, I had to complete the dialogue as to what would be said next. I was like an idiot savant (minus the savant). My score and subsequent answers, whenever they're graded, could only be concocted by a madman.

Sections two, three and four only proved my ignorance further. There was grammar structure I didn't know; a slew of vocabulary usage I didn't know; and, to top it all off, 8 (count them, 8!) Chinese passages to read then answer comprehension questions. If my life depended on this test, well, I'd say dig me a hole boys 'cause I'm done dealin'! It was insanely hard. The up side is now I know what to study and how to prepare for the next time. I'd like to take it again (maybe next year), if time can heal the wounds that are gaping from my experience this morning.

I have a good friend and brother named David. I first meet him in September of 2004 and I knew he was special. Our relationship has had ups and downs like all friends do, but I have continued to follow his life down an interesting path. Last summer, when I was back home, he told me of his plan for carrying a cross. He wants to carry it day in and day out, along highways, through cities, and across states. Since the cross represents life over death to Christians, this symbol that he is carrying means hope to many but death to some. I heard from a friend that he was back in Tulsa, OK (that's where I'm from and where we met) for a bit. Previously, he was out on the east coast carrying his cross. I found a few stories written about him from newspaper covering his journey. You can check out some reporting from the Richmond County Daily Journal (NC), Richmond County Observer (NC), and the Aiken Standard (NC).

Beijing lodges formal complaint against CNN (April 17, 2008, South China Morning Post) Beijing has lodged a formal complaint against US television network CNN for what it called a vicious attack by one of its commentators who labelled the Chinese as "goons" and their products as "junk". In a statement late on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao condemned the comments by Jack Cafferty on CNN's The Situation Room programme and demanded the network apologise. CNN has already said it did not mean to cause offence with Mr Cafferty's remarks and clarified that the commentator was offering his opinion of the Chinese government, not the country's people, but the Foreign Ministry said that was not good enough. Mr Cafferty had said the United States imported Chinese-made "junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food", adding: "They're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years."

Tsinghua Professor: Big Chinese cities need slums for migrant workers (April 15, 2008, Xinhua) A Chinese scholar from one of China's most prestigious universities claimed slums should be allowed to exist in China's big cities to provide shelters for the urban poor. "It is no shame for big cities to have such areas. On the contrary, Shenzhen and other cities should take initiatives to build cheap residential areas for low-income residents including migrant workers who want to stay in the cities where they work," said Tsinghua University Professor Qin Hui. "By building those areas, big cities could show more consideration for low-income residents, and provide them with more welfare," Qin said in his speech at a public forum on urbanization in Shenzhen over the weekend.  He urged big cities to provide living space for migrant workers, because most cannot settle in the cities where they work.

China's direct investments abroad top $92b by 2007 (April 14, 2008, Xinhua) China's combined direct investments abroad amounted to $92.05 billion by the end of 2007, said a senior official of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) on Wednesday. Zhang Wei, vice chairman of the CCPIT, said in Beijing that since the government initiated the "going global" strategy for domestic companies in 1998, Chinese companies' enthusiasm for investing overseas has been on the rise, big privately-owned enterprises in particular.

I recently signed onto to Xiaonei, a "facebooking" site within China. It is TOTALLY like Facebook - completely uncanny as to its accuracy. My Chinese is by no means excellent; however, all I need to be able to navigate Xiaonei is to have two windows open...one on Xiaonei and the other on Facebook. I can totally see the same steps, icons, and links between the two. It's quite freaky. I think Xiaonei will also thoroughly help my Chinese with writing messages back and forth and all. Anyway, it's not like I wasn't already addicted to Facebook. Now Facebook has a companion with Xiaonei. Yikes!

During my first year of China, I had a Freshman class of students challenge me to learn a Chinese song. I learned a song about a Chinese man who is in a car wreck. The man is then helped by a Northeastern man (东北人), nursed to health in a hospital, then taken out to eat by the Good Samaritan. The song is quite quick and peppy; it was a popular hit about 4 years ago. Anyway, a student filmed it and I put it on my YouTube over a year and a half ago.

Well, for some unknown reason, it started getting several comments (I'm up to 14 on it by today) and hits. It was always the number one commented video of all my videos, but now it's hits have dramatically increased. Last night, I noticed it was hovering around 1,600, but, when I checked it after class this afternoon, it had 3,475 hits. Crazy! I found the website that is doing all this referring (it's actually at 2,216 Clicks) here. I can't view the site (maybe it's blocked in China), but I'm curious as to why this video is being well-received by Netizens. Anyway, I'm thankful for the free publicity.

This week has seen temperatures rising into (I think) the low 70's. It has been pretty hot, so much that I've shed my fleece and now it's short sleeves all the way. Still many of my students cling to their double (or triple layers); however, I'm gearing up for warmer weather. The flowers and trees have begun to bud around campus as well and it's starting to look quite beautiful. I've even seen some students bustin' out the shorts.

This heat has also been brought on by the change of the sun's position. I am starting to wake up around 5:30 AM to the bright, bright sun. This is the time of year (being where I'm positioned on the globe) that the morning brightness is quite intense and I just can't seem to sleep through it. This is also the time that I start taking naps to compensate. And since the weather is warming up, this is also the time of year that the AC comes on. I almost turned it on today.

Foreign language courses in China draw 50 million people (March 31, 2008, Xinhua) China has nearly 50 million people who are learning foreign languages at schools and language institutes, an official of the Ministry of Education (MOE) said. Colleges offer courses in more than 60 foreign languages, Dai Weidong, professor with the MOE advisory board for foreign language teaching, told an international symposium that concluded over the weekend. More than 900 colleges offer an English major, he said, and of those, more than 600 can confer a bachelor's degree and more than 200 can confer master's degrees. There are more than 800,000 students majoring in English in China.

Retailers face big fines for violating plastic ban (April 10, 2008, Xinhua) Retailers may be fined up to 10,000 Yuan ($1,430) for providing free plastic bags to shoppers, the Ministry of Commerce has proposed. The penalty will take effect from June 1, according to a draft regulation published on the ministry's website to solicit public opinion till April 14. The move follows a ban announced in January on the manufacture, sale and use of ultra-thin plastic bags (defined as less than 0.025 mm thick) from June 1 as part of efforts to protect the environment and save energy. The draft regulation says retailers can set the price for plastic bags, but not below cost. They also have to include the price of the bags on customer receipts, or face fines of up to 5,000 Yuan. The regulation does not apply to plastic packaging for frozen or cooked food.

Yuan breaks 7 mark against US dollar (April 10, 2007, Xinhua) Chinese currency, the Yuan, was set to trade at 6.9920 Yuan against one US dollar on Thursday, the first time for it to breach the 7-Yuan mark against the dollar since the country de-pegged its currency from the dollar in 2005. Following an overnight fall of the dollar, the central parity rate of the Yuan, or Renminbi, gained 105 basis points to 6.9920 Yuan against the dollar on Thursday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.

I totally freaked them out!

I've been showing "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" to my Sophomore Oral students during break. I show ten minutes at a time as a way for them to have fun as well as to stay awake. (After they nap during the break, it's insanely hard to get them to wake up and focus.) Anyway, today was the part where Pee Wee is picked up by Large Marge. She tells the story of her own demise. She is actually a ghost and freaks Pee Wee out with a gruesome transformation. When she did this in the movie, some of my students completely freaked. One girl was so afraid that she held her hands over her eyes the whole time, thinking another ghost would pop out. One girl almost had tears in her eyes. Another one kept looking at me angrily. (Let it be known that four weeks ago, they couldn't get enough of this movie or Pee Wee - they all copy his laugh.) So I would have loved to have a camera on them because they were stinkin' funny. I laughed out loud for about a minute. Below is a video clip of Large Marge.

P.S. - I can't wait until I show this part to the class tomorrow. Behind my back, they'll probably think I'm a jerk.

With Kansas being the champs of March Madness, the team choices for the bracket were tallied and Wu came out on top. I tied Daren for third with 92 points. I actually chose Duke & Tennessee in the Final Four (which is where my major points were lost), but I rallied with the pick of Kansas as #1. Oh well. Sadly, I lost the 10 Yuan I bet. There's always next year...

Wu also shared with me some funny family news (and, Mavis, you'll appreciate this). He said that his sister has a blog and has set a link to his blog. However, he's not first on the list, rather I am! I guffawed when he showed me this. I enjoyed it so much, I copied the screen, so the world can see how special I am in the Wu family! If you look closely, in the lower right hand corner, you can see my blog placed first among her Friends. I rock!

The weather in Siping is also warming up. I would guess we hit the lower 60's today? With this weather change, it's hard to believe that in two months I'll be returning to the US. We are in the middle of week 6 out of 16 teaching weeks, so time is marching quickly. I can't wait to see my little nephew Zao. I only got to spend 4 days with him after his birth before I came to China. I told Daren & Jennifer last week that Will & Jude are my "nephew substitutes" for Nehemiah and Zao. I so do miss those little boyz!

Last night I also had a visit from a student who showed me a picture she took. I wasn't supposed to laugh when I saw the picture, but I did. She is a strong girl, so I don't think she was too offended. Nonetheless, here's her picture. (I didn't tell her I was going to do this, but, when she reads my blog, I hope she will be surprised!) You're the best, Susan!

Every Friday morning, the team gets together for some sharing time. I was tapped to lead this time, so I put together two PowerPoints about my life that were in a Jeopardy! format (Single Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! of course). I had categories like "Family Members", "Give Me a Number", and "Speak in Chinese". It was awesome playing "Alex" and judge as teammates yelled out answers concerning me and my life. Even though we'd sometime argue about who said what first (since points were to be had) and the validity of a question or answer (I had some misspellings and odd-phrasing of questions), I had a good time. I love giving my team time to bond and enjoy each other. I was also amazed at their knowledge about me and the stories of my life. Kudos go to: Jude & Will (for being my "substitute" nephews for Nehemiah and Zao), Michelle (for knowing my step-mother is half-Chinese and is a twin), Rachel (for remembering the magazine ad that started the "chain-reaction" of me coming to China), and to Wu (for truly remembering a lot of facts about me, such as my Indian heritage).

It feels good to be loved.

It's hard to believe that today I'll be finishing up week 5 of class this term. I only have a total of 16 weeks of classes before I can return home and the time is comin' fast. Just last week, some of the team had *confirmed* plane tickets purchased. This is a first. Normally, the school waits much later (last year it was two weeks before I went home) to purchase airplane tickets, but, with the Olympics going down in Beijing, tickets prices are raising as well.

In team news, Jonny had his "18-Years-Old-But-With-14-Years-Experience" birthday on March 31st. We had cake (courtesy of Rach), gift-giving to Wu, and a relaxing meal of spaghetti, meatballs, and salad. Wu is always easy to please; he was waaaay stoked about this multi-colored pens. What a goober! (But you should ask him about the re-gifted "children's poster" that he received.)

Jude and I have begun our Chinese classes again. At Chinese school, he's learning a lot of characters. I think his adjustment is quite well. I think he really enjoys speaking Chinese as he and I often have short conversations. We've learned colors, parts of the face, and animals. But he's really been excited about learning family terms and nature.

Tomorrow is also the Sophomore movie night. I can't decide if I want to show "Peaceful Warrior" (about an gymnast who wants to try out for the US team) or "Miracle" (a group of boys and their rise to winning a gold medal in hockey), since they both have Olympic themes (and that was our lesson two weeks ago). It's a holiday tomorrow and many students will go home, but I think there'll be a lot of students who will come. They're always stoked about these movie nights and it's good to give them some entertainment activity with a purpose of learning more English and culture.

And for your final gift, a picture of me that Jennifer took after I stole little Samantha's barrette. I'm such a nerd!