China posts rules of sex change (June 16, 2009, China Daily)
To change gender in China costs more than money. One must be free of a criminal record and be single if he or she wants to have a sex change, the Ministry of Health said Tuesday in a new regulation. Other conditions include having lived publicly as the other gender for more than two years, at least five years of unwavering desire to change, more than one year of psychotherapy and a commitment by local police to issue a new ID card after the operation.

Chinese upper class growing (June 18, 2009, China Daily)
More than half of nearly 800 wealthy Chinese recently polled believe the widening gap between the rich and poor is also creating an emerging upper class in the country. The survey, carried out by lifestyle magazine Best Life, interviewed 792 rich Chinese in 62 cities from 27 provinces through local chambers of commerce. Those interviewed were private entrepreneurs with personal assets of more than 10 million yuan ($1.4 million). More than 80 percent of those polled also said the income gap between rich and poor in the country was too wide, the magazine reported this week. "In recent years, the huge gap between rich and poor has become an indisputable fact in China," Li Wei, director of the social development department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told China Daily Wednesday.

Kids taken in adoption scheme (July 2, 2009, Shanghai Daily)
An orphanage in southwest China has been accused of taking children away from parents who can't afford fines for violating family planning policy and sending the kids overseas for adoption. The orphanage was reportedly earning US$3,000 for each child placed with a foreign family. The allegations involve family planning officials in Zhenyuan County, Guizhou Province. They demanded that parents who violated childbirth regulations pay 10,000 yuan (US$1,460) for each extra offspring, according to Nanfang Metropolis Daily. Those who couldn't afford the fine were ordered to give their child to a local orphanage, the paper said. The orphanage was funneling the children into China's system for foreign adoptions, the paper reported. Overseas families sent applications through adoption agencies in their countries to a state-backed adoption center in China. The center collected information about abandoned and orphaned children from around country, including the Zhenyuan orphanage, and sent it the adoptive families. If a child was chosen, the orphanage received US$3,000 from the adoptive family.

License plate with lucky 8 sells for record price (July 2, 2009, China Daily)
A vehicle license plate with the number D88888 was auctioned off for the record price of 100,100 yuan ($14,652) in Qionghai, Hainan province, on Monday. The buyer is a businessman who felt it was worth the large sum of money. The public auction for the plate started at 30,000 yuan. The digit 8 (ba) has a similar Chinese sound to "fa", meaning becoming rich.

The time has finally arrived that I make my way home back to America. I leave by night train to Beijing, arrive there tomorrow morning, take a United flight to San Francisco at noon, make another layover in Denver, then finally arrive in Tulsa. I should get to Tulsa around 8 PM on Saturday night. I actually gain time since I come from China. In total the trip will take about 48 hours…and the first thing that I will want (after a bag of Cheetos) is a nice, long shower.

This year has been the hardest for me in terms of motivation. I’m not sure why, but I’m surprised I’ve felt this way. I realize that being in a foreign culture can be hard and extremely difficult in ways that a person’s not normally used to. Perhaps this is just one area…or maybe I’ve recently become extremely lazy. I’ve always handed back homework to student quickly, but I’ve struggled this year to do that. Even my blogging has not been enjoyable or punctual as usual. I’m really looking forward to this summer in having no Grad class and will simply be able to be around family. No agendas and no harsh schedules. In the meantime, I’m packing up and compiling final grades. This Friday night I board a night train for Beijing where I will be flying out Saturday noon en route to the States. Ah, home sweet home!

The team traveled to beautiful Dalian in Liaoning province (about 7 hours by train southeast of Siping). It was our end-of-year retreat, simply to debrief highs and lows and discuss the entire year. We’ve spent three days here and it has been enjoyable: pigging out on pizza and cheese-everything, going around town, having numerous trip to Starbucks (Jude and I just love the Green Tea Frapps), and watching my first movie in a movie theater in China (we all saw “Night at the Museum 2”). We’ve had a great time together and our team retreats have become part of our team culture. We leave at 12:15 PM for Siping by train; it should take about 8 hours. We all have sleepers, so we can enjoy plenty of space while traveling. Last year at this time, we went to Shenyang, and this year it was Dalian. Hmmm, where to go next year?

I’m so stoked about coming home this summer! I don’t have Wheaton classes in Illinois; therefore, no travel to and from there, no homework, and no stress. This summer is gonna rock! As of right now, I’m working on several different dates and trips. Right now, I’m scheduled to go with the Clements to Washington, DC around the end of July. That’s probably the only out-of-state trip I’ll take. Most of the time I plan to stay in or around Tulsa/Muskogee.

In team news, we’ve recently discovered that Vance will be leaving us for the States next year. Sarah is possibly going to Changchun, but nothing is secured at this point. We did receive word of two new teachers to my school – both women with one being from Maine and one from Alabama. They’re living the dream of coming to teach in China!

Former teammate, Michelle, is visiting us from Kashgar (that’s in northwest China). It’s good to see her and have her presence near us. She’s going home early for unknown reasons; she does seem tired and disillusioned. I’m glad she’s able to visit us and laugh into the late night hours.

Some of my more faithful and compassionate teammates visit the local Siping orphanage on a weekly basis. Kat has been in amazing contact with them as to the needs of the children. Recently, three children have come to the point of needing serious assistance: one with a cleft palate and two with club feet (see the pics).   The former is quite easy to fix as the child must be of age and weight; the latter is harder to find help. Kat has actually secured a hospital in Guilin (far south  China) who will have multiple casts over a year long process to “recreate” and “reshape” the feet. Good news indeed! To help this process out, similar to two years ago, each of us team members have created a special “prize” that can be won. Students buy tickets (as chances) for each of our prizes with the hopes of winning. My prize is with Wu and the winning student (and friend) will get a trip to Shenyang – free with a train ride, Western food, Starbucks and shopping. The drawing for this activity is this Wednesday at 3:45 PM. Our students are all abuzz about it.

One of the classes we taught for Sophomore Oral last week related to money. We focused on three currencies (the Euro, the US Dollar, and the Thai Baht) and talked about the symbols and meanings of the currencies in relation to the culture that it is from. We also taught some other global currency issues. This is a two-part lesson as part two is a game that I'd like to call "The UN Game".

If you've ever played "The Settlers of Catan", then you'll understand. Last year, I made a game where student groups (i.e., "countries") trade goods of Wheat, Oil and Gold worth 100, 300 and 500 Unis (the UN's currency that I made up) respectively. However, the game needed tweaking as the values were raised and lowered as needs arose and the game was poorly managed. And students were running all around the room! I tweaked much by creating several rules meant to control the game. The addition of Wood at 200 Unis and Stone at 400 Unis added a cool dimension. I then made the goal of the game to create a city in their country over a period of 7 years (i.e., rounds). Up until last year, I had never played Settlers, but, with the addition of increased Resources and city building, I knew it would be a sure win in the classroom.

What was most fun about this activity was to see their negotiations and trades. Culturally speaking, I learned much about their "Chinese" since of business and how relationships play a large part in society. In particular, I noticed how friendship was a large key that was indeed tested during the game. At one point, a student, who was not the team’s Negotiator, was sent to another “country” to request a certain good. They both happen to be the only two boys in the class, so I noticed how the sending group felt the “genderizing” of the Negotiator would make a difference. Anthony told me that the best line he heared in class was, “Get out of my country!” When I helped Wu play this game with the Education girls (42 students as opposed to the 24 in our normal classes), it was quite chaotic with screaming, running around the room, and general insaneness. I could have sworn that during the third year of negotiating, I was going to have to break up a group of chaotic Negotiators aiming for another’s country’s Resource. The game was absolute madness yet completely awesome to watch! I can’t wait until next year.

As a teacher in Siping, I have never taught class on Friday. Our school has afforded us this luxury and it is always well-received. China celebrated a holiday on Sunday which meant no classes yesterday. So Robb, Sarah, and I traveled to Shenyang (just south of Siping) for a day of fun. We had Starbucks, New York style pizza, Haagan-Daas, and McDonald's. We also went to shop at the Metro, which is a Sam's Club-type store from Germany. I can buy  El Paso flour tortillas and refried beans, Hormel ham, Land O' Lakes cheese, and corn flakes. I'm beginning to really enjoy Shenyang, especially with the fast trains to and from there. Shenyang also has a US consulate, so if I need anything US related I could get there quickly and easy.

Yesterday, the team celebrate Wu's birthday. Rach put together the theme of hot dogs, so we had chili (courtesy of me), onion strings (courtesy of Kat), potato salad (courtesy of Jennifer), hot dogs, drinks, chips and dip. Rach even put together a sampling of songs with the hot dog theme. There was even a little poster made which was absolutely hilarious - it had a dancing hot dog in a bun. Anywho, I got Wu an AWESOME gift from Thailand that totally went with the theme even though I had no idea 3 months ago. If you read this, you gotta ask him what I got him!

I guess the piracy of 1.4 Billion people+ in China has caused an illegal activity to become legal - not just legal but capitalized on. What am I talking about? Well, Google China has just released a slew (as in A LOT) of free music to download. I am talking not just domestic but foreign music from around the globe. And all of it is free! You read it right...free. Google China is hoping that revenue for this little project will be generated via ads that appear on the web pages where the music can be downloaded.

The down side? Well, you must have a Chinese IP address - that is you must logon to a computer within the Chinese mainland. I'm sure there's ways around this (and someone's probably working on that right now in Bangladesh) but for now, I'm downloading like a banshee! Click here to see the choices.

To understand our world, go here.

The team just finished week 4 of 16 for the term. There has been more lessons to prepare initially, but it's slowing down a little. I enjoy preparing lessons, mind you, but at times it can get overwhelming. I only have 7 classes a week, but these involves 3 different types of classes (with 1 class meeting twice a week) - meaning I must prepare 4 lessons a week to teach in class. Being a quarter of the way through, my thoughts have turned to returning home - and I can't wait to see my 2 nephews, Nehemiah and Zao. Boy, do I miss them a bunch!

With college basketball's March Madness in full swing, the team scores for their brackets are as follows: 1st = Wu @ 77 pts.; 2nd = Me @ 72 pts.; 3rd = Daren @ 70 pts.; 4th = Vance @ 68 pts.; 5th = Mark @ 66 pts.; 6th = Rachel @ 64 pts.; 7th = Kat @ 62 pts.; 8th = Jennifer @ 61 pts.; 9th = Sarah @ 44 pts. & 10th = Anthony @ 38 pts. As a concession, I don't think Sarah or Anthony have ever followed college basketball, much less have ever filled out a bracket. As to a second concession, I'm not 2nd according to the "total pool" of participates which includes Jason & his girlfriend, Matt (Jason's bro), Seth, Michelle, Robb, Amy (our country director), Jenny (an assistant in Beijing), and Tim (our area director). With these people factored in I'm 6th...and the only one pulling for Oklahoma as the champs! <Fingers crossed here.>

The never ending song (March 12, 2009, Xinhua)
More than 1,200 residents in northeastern China have set a new world karaoke record by singing continuously for 456 hours, two minutes and five seconds. Students, soldiers, and businessmen from Changchun, capital of Jilin Province, sang more than 6,200 songs from February 20 until yesterday morning, Xinhua News Agency reported today. It beat the old Guinness World Record, set by Finns in July, by nearly 10 hours.

Bidding fierce for last-round Beijing Olympic Games relics (March 19, 2009, Xinhua)
Collectors spent a total of 47.8 million yuan (7 million U.S. dollars) yesterday to get their hands on the last 410 drums and 978 bamboo scrolls that featured in the amazing opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics last summer. The popular souvenirs went under the hammer at the China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) in a four-hour auction that attracted more than 130 millionaires from across China. It was the third and final round of the auctions, with the total winning bids for all 1,500 fou, a traditional Chinese drum, and near 1,000 zhujian, ancient-style bamboo scrolls, a staggering 119.1 million yuan. The sales are expected to make the Beijing Games an even bigger financial success, with organizers, who will wrap up their duties by June, already declaring an estimated profit of over 16 million U.S. dollars.

Yao Ming tops Chinese celebrity list again (March 18, 2009, Shanghai Daily)
Basketball player Yao Ming remains China's top Chinese celebrity, leading the Forbes China Celebrity List for the sixth year. The 2009 list was released yesterday in the March issue of Forbes China, the Chinese-language edition of Forbes magazine. It surveyed the incomes and popularity of leading figures in film, sports, media, music and publishing. All those considered were born and raised on China's mainland. The China list is modeled on Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list. Yao topped both the income and popularity sectors with an income of 357.77 million yuan (US$52.34 million) last year. Though income is the biggest single factor in compiling the list - which tracks the transfer of fame into fortune over the past year - media coverage and web hits within China also figure prominently. Actress Zhang Ziyi now ranks No.2 overall - she was 5th last year.

I'm not sure what to think of it all, but apparently there was an earthquake felt near Siping. Both Mark & Rach said they felt it. Rumors flew around Siping that the earthquake was in Gongzhuling (about 50 miles north of Siping). Classes on campus were actually canceled this afternoon due to some fears of the administration. Rumors still flew around this evening that at 10:30 PM tonight, there would be another one (like these things can be predicted like this?).

To find the truth to all this, I went online and found here that indeed an earthquake had occurred in Asia around the time mentioned by Rach & Mark, but it was in Japan - around 1,000 miles east of Siping. It was listed as a 5.1 earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan, not even on the mainland. However, I did hear from Jason tonight that there was a 4.3 earthquake in Jilin province (but I can't seem to find anything referencing this). Despite the hype around this event post-Sichuan earthquake, I think I'll still sleep soundly tonight.

It's March Madness time and Team Siping is there! Jonny printed up the NCAA brackets for the team, passed them out, and instructed us to fill them out and turn them in (along with 10 Yuan for the "pool"). I don't think Anthony had ever filled one out as I saw Wu explaining, in great details, what to do. This is something of a small tradition as the winner receives the "pool" of the money and the "first loser" (as Wu calls him) receives 10 Yuan back. I've selected Memphis and OU (University of Oklahoma) in the finals with OU on top. I saw that ESPN will offer $1,000,000 to the person who submits a perfect bracket. So I submitted my and expect to receive my $25,000 checks for 40 years. Rock on!

I honestly don't know why I haven't blogged in like A MONTH AND A HALF. Call it laziness or downright procrastination, but it's time I get back with the program. I've updated my class schedule this term, set up some more links, changed my music, and did some "web" cleaning. There'll be more to come. But for now, I'm going to bed.

I have never been at a resort, much less spent more than a day at the beach. Granted, Oklahoma beaches are not exactly "off the coast of Thailand" beaches, but still it's similar territory. Anyway, the six of us headed 3 hours outside of Bangkok, Thailand and spent a week at Dolphin Bay Resort in Hua Hin. I had never felt so relaxed in Asia!

Last summer I finished my MA and was really looking forward to not having homework during the winter and summer breaks. Since I've been teaching in China, this has always been my experience. However, while others in the MA program were having classes in Chiang Mai, I was in earthly bliss. It's been great not to have homework or papers or reading or stress related to anything of that sort. Because of this, I have totally enjoyed being freed from the clutches of this cycle - and Dolphin Bay was the first taste of this.

Basically, I watched TV, ate great food, slept in, took daily naps, went shopping around in the city, and had an overall great time doing nothing. This feeling was awesome and I left Hua Hin completely having enjoyed it.

The highlight of this portion of my break was going to Monkey Island and seeing all of the monkeys. They were cute and small, so technically I think they were macaques. We feed them food, watched Mark challenge the alpha male (don't ask), enjoyed Daren's leg being bit at, seeing Sarah's dress being pulled at (yeah, Sarah joined our crew half way through our time at the resort), and boating around the whole island. It was a good day.

Up to this point in my life, the longest train ride I was ever on was with Jonny and Rachel during the "pre-Samantha" years. However, I really wasn't ready to spend 24 hours on a train. Yikes!

The previous cabin we had from Hanoi had two electric outlets. I didn't have the right adapter to plug in my laptop for that leg, but I had found a good one while in Hanoi. I was ready to watch movies and entertain myself with my laptop until Saigon. However, the cabin we found ourselves in had no outlets. I was bummed beyond belief! I now had to resort of low-tech forms of entertainment.

I had brought along 6 dice to play a game called "Farkle". The concept of the game is simple and it involves skill, as much as luck. I had taught Jude how to play it previously on the trip and we played it on my bed. Mark had watched us play, so he decided to join us as well.

Going through the coastline of Vietnam gave us amazing scenery to view. Quaint villages, mountain-top houses, marshy low-lands, and countless rice paddies were the common features. Daren and Mark took lots of picture. Unfortunately, I got zilch pictures because my camera broke. I'll probably have to wait until China to try to get it fixed. Big bummer!

The six of us in our little cabin afforded interesting bonding time. We played games introduced by me, talked about how smelly the bathroom on the train was, what it would be like to have better food than our crackers we brought onboard, and the number of hours yet to ride until Saigon.

What was most funny about the trip was the arrival. I had woken up at about 4:30 AM; I was hot. I was in and out for 30 minutes, trying to go back to sleep. However, I heard, several cabin doors down from us have a loud "knock, knock" on the door and the words "Saigon, Saigon". The person was doing and saying this for every cabin - and it was getting closer and closer. We had anticipated a 24-hour train ride yet it was going to be about 17. Sure enough, this was our stop and we had arrived in Saigon.

We then departed the train station and there was a driver who greeted us for our ride to the hotel. Sadly, we couldn't check in until 10 AM, so for about 3 hours we just got out in the lobby. Good times, good times. It was good to know I didn't have to get on another train until China.

After a 16-hour train ride, the six of us arrived in Danang. It was slightly surreal being there because my father had served in the Vietnam War in this area. We were greeted by our driver, who was holding a sign and waiting for us, and he briskly took us from the train station and drove us about one hour to the city of Hoi An. Hoi An is a highly touristy area. Part of me was sad that we didn't see a lot of Danang, and I didn't feel like I was on the streets of Vietnam, being so touristy and all. But still it was great being here.

After a meal and freshening up, we began a tour around the area with our guide, Vinh. He was a local with acceptable English, so he knew the area pretty well and he could be understood just enough. The city itself was pretty small. There were several small islands clustered together that made up part of Hoi An. And there was a billion places to spend money. At every corner, someone was selling something: silk shirts, lanterns, jewelry, and all manner of trinkets galore. It's overwhelming when you come with absolutely NO INTENTION of buying anything; I'm not carrying "stuff" all around Asia before arriving back in Siping. Plus, I felt what I saw in the stores I could just as well find in China (copycatted, of course). We finished our day of sightseeing with a meal and headed back to our hotel.

Now, the coolest thing about our little tour around the city was seeing the factory were they made silk. They showed us (in microcosm) the process by which silk is made. They showed us the silk worms eating the mulberry leaves. Then they showed us the cocoons they create in the process of becoming a moth. They showed us the machine that "gathered" the silk off of 10-15 cocoons to make a strand of silk. Lastly, we saw the machine that put it all together as a weaved and finished product. It was amazing to see this process.

By the way, the local area is known for a special kind of spring roll - and it was gooood! Most Americans, when they think of Chinese food, think of egg rolls (or "spring rolls" as they are common called in China); however, egg rolls aren't common in Siping at all. Most menus don't even feature this item. However, in Vietnam spring rolls are everywhere and are impressively delicious.

We were only in Hoi An for less than 24 hours. After a good night's sleep, we headed back to Danang to board the train. Previously, we had  a comfortable, adequately clean, and well-ventilated cabin with four beds for a 16 hour trip. However, when we got on this train and find our car with our cabin, the accommodation were not so welcoming. We still had four beds, but my bed had what I call "fungus among us" and my "clean" bed sheets had what I called "human stains". Yuk! Mind you, I decided not to complain but this train ride, which we boarded at 11:28 AM, was going to take us almost 24 hours to complete - from Danang to Saigon. I wasn't mentally prepared for this, but I quickly got there! Needless to say, the six of us were going to have a interesting ride.