More general updates

 Sorry for the lack of anything exciting lately! There's quite literally been nothing significant. However, I'll be heading to Shenzhen and Hong Kong this weekend so it goes without saying that I'll have some pretty good stuff to be posting next week!

Here are some general things from the last couple weeks

Teaching the kids some kind of pop culture dance thing - this kind of reminds me when I was a primary school student and they taught us the Macarena....

"Lake Guangzhou", or "What happens when the drainage system (or lack thereof) fails"

Awesome waterfall in the courtyard of the Garden Hotel. It turns out that since we were not guests of the hotel, we weren't actually allowed to be there. Whoops. The key was to not directly answer the security guard's question of "Are you guests of the hotel?"

The best grand opening sale of any restaurant anywhere on the planet: if you bring 2 or more people, you get unlimited beers for your table for 10 yuan, or roughly $1.40 USD. Of course, we didn't actually know this until the next day, but it explained the eagerness of the locals to get into drinking contests with us.

This one old lady was incredibly impressive, and she embarrassed Josh no less than 3 times; it was hilarious.

 The new guy getting acquainted with some locals.

This is on the 4th floor of the local mall seen here:

3 weeks ago, there was no movie theater there. In these pictures, I was guessing it had about 1.5 weeks left, especially since Iron Man 2 will be released in mainland China on May 7th.

Here's the same location, 2 days later:

I'll be sure to go some time and see what it's like - but for right now just know that it's a lot smaller yet more luxurious than the theaters back in the States.

 Squatty potty in one of the teachers' restrooms at one of my schools....

I just thought this advertisement was a bit odd: I'm no doctor but I don't think the color of food affects exactly what it does to help your body. I could be wrong, though. If anything, it's just nice to see a PSA for healthy eating!

Speaking of which....

More on McDonalds:

*cough*

 You can substitute your fries for corn for no additional charge.

Spicy Chicken Sandwich - my favorite. Note how it's actual meat instead of some sort of chicken/sponge hybrid.

And, last but not least:

Seen on the papers on the trays at McDonalds. I'm assuming the guy is a manager, which makes this, by far, one of the funniest things I have seen here. Could you imagine if you were one of the workers and you saw your boss drawn like that?

-T

General Updates again

Been a bit busy, but here's a bunch of stuff:

I apologize for the lack of cohesion, but I suppose it'll give you a better idea of day to day life here!

One of the local artificial lakes had the water level extremely low the other day...the fish weren't happy. I have no idea what was going on!

Modern rickshaws - bicycles with electric or gas powered motors attached along with seats in the back. Here they are waiting for customers to leave the grocery store carrying bags they don't want to walk far with!

 Every now and then it gets so humid, that it's almost as if the ground itself is sweating! Gross...

Awesome soup from my favorite Japanese/Chinese noodle place. That is seaweed and eel!

Military helicopters were busy Friday...not sure why...

Later that afternoon the kids had a flea market. The proceeds were going to some good cause (I was told different causes by different teachers so I just stopped asking...).

Enjoying their new books.

A prime example of the term "squatty potty."

White Cloud Mountain (Baiyun Shan) in the background.

No idea.

Tianhe Park:

Go karts!

Apparently 75 degree weather during the winter is too cold for the pool.

...we didn't win anything.

An ice center at the park - it was closed. Too bad...

Competitive game of Jianzi - Chinese Hacky Sack - played like badminton / hacky sack. That would be Josh showing off his skills in the center there. The English name for the game is "Shuttlecock."

Boat rides! You shoot the frogs with a laser on the boat and they squirt water up and make noise - the kids seemed to be having fun with that (I wanted to do it but no one else did).

Mausoleum of the Nanyue King:

(a museum)

Basically a burial site from about 2000 years ago (this is the original location, I believe).

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/guangdong/guangzhou/nanyue_king.htm

People would put cash up there for some reason (there were cash collecting boxes at a couple of other places, but there was significantly more at this specific location). Josh and I wondered how many people just grab a handful, since no one seemed to be guarding it...

The woven jade burial outfit he was found in.

A Lamborghini dealership down the street! Nice.

Yuexiu Park

(Guangzhou's largest park, I think)

Guangzhou's famous statue of the Five Goats. Basically, this statue is as synonymous with the city as the Statue of Liberty is in New York.

http://www.chinaetravel.com/attraction/att07b1.html

Elsewhere:

Super busy bus and train terminal.

Just some residences and shops, but I thought they looked incredibly interesting.

This photo was taken in my district. If you thought you lived close to your neighbors back home...

A fine example of the local sardine cans on wheels.

The biggest pain of a bus stop ever constructed. Everyone essentially has to sprint to whatever bus they want in order to try and make it, unless you know EXACTLY what bus you want and EXACTLY what position it will actually stop at. Horrible design.

That's all for now!

-T