Kaci's Weekend

I was so lucky to spend the whole weekend in Dalian with Emily and her old friend Kaci who came to visit us from her teaching post in Southern China. Emily and Kaci have a mind-blowingly, impressively extraordinary history of world travel together. We did a little bit of everything we could think of and then some, including the compulsory jumping pictures at the coast. Here are some pictures in sets of twos.

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Living History out my Window

I wish I could talk to these men and ask them about what all they have seen in their days on earth, and, really, what they are thinking about.... right.... now. Imagine they are in their 70s. Having grown up in LiaoNing province, it means they were born during the Japanese occupation and their WMD experiments, they were governed by the Kuomintang, then the beginnings of Mao's dreamy PRC... by this time maybe they are in their thirties, then the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution.. and then Reform and Opening again! Capitalism to Communism "full circle".

Saturday's Tomfoolery

Today was a day where we set out with the simple plan of spending it together, and we did, and when it was done we were pleasantly surprised by the breadth of entertainment we had created for ourselves. Highlights definitely included reinventing Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon scenes at President Hu's Dalian beach house juxtaposed with the Chinese military training. Here is a sampling of our action tableaux.

The Making of the Gibraltar Accord

The Friday Night Maple Leaf Risk Club made the leap today into mission-style play. Elvis, with his strategy of unrelenting pressure in the East, completed his four missions in a record 2:15 time for our club... including the notable mission of total Asian control. A well deserved victory. Albert played a strong game out of South America before sweeping his artillery across to East Africa and threatening the security of Malcolm and my Peace Treaty, the Gibraltar Accord, that had previously secured a solid no-fighting zone over the Mediterranean. Molly pushed strong into North America putting a ruthless end to Steven in Central Canada. It is easy to excuse that the winner often wins because they secure control of Australia, but this time I think Elvis could have done it even if he didn't control Australia too.

Powerfulness and powerlessness

The Purple Ice Monster Hits Kaifaqu... and the people fight back!

We began to hear the wind over the fireworks at 5:00pm Sunday night. We marveled at the force of the coming storm, which was about to be the worst Dalian has seen in years. Each day since Chinese New Year, I made a claim that the constant firework displays would start to simmer down now but each day so far I had been proven wrong. Today, with all the hacov reaped by this 'Purple Ice Monster' included, was no exception. Over the course of the evening, I grew to believe that the stronger the storm blew, the more earnestly determined the people became to light their fireworks. As my neighbours lit them higher, they were countered with a horizontal hail rebuttal. Then, when the fireworks grew louder and more numerous still, we all got our power and water cut. Eerily back and forth the storm and the fireworks intensified... as if we were angry in Grade 5 again, saying... "oh yeah? Well..." ... "oh yeah? Well..." ... "oh yeah! Well..." ... "oh yeah! Well...". Lampposts broke at the base and crashed down into ice beds, the wind blew over and smashed our complex glass railings. The complex playground lay in a fun's-over pile swept up against the fence. Still, the fireworks continued. People spent three hours stranded at the shopping center, people held poles to not be thrown over, the whole city was in the dark, but still the fireworks somehow continued, loud and unruly like the wind. We lit candles just before the power went out. The doors and windows froze shut and we were thankful because it sealed the small cracks that usually allowed the wind to sneek through. We awed the storm for a few hours and then Jamie pulled out her guitar and I sat on the other couch, wrapped in a big fleece blanket, and listened to her play and sing songs until we were tired enough to sleep.
When we woke at 5:15 this morning for work it was still dark and the power and water were still off. We got ready for school by candlelight and it turned out to be a gorgeous, yet extremely extremely cold and windy, day. I took a few pictures of the Kaifaqu battleground. Though the storm left an ugly trail of destruction in this city, the battles winner can not be so easily declared because the wind is gone now, and all that is left to be heard outside my window is the confident, unrelenting fireworks.

Message from Mandakh

I just got this email from one of my students from when I was teaching in Mongolia this past summer. Her name is Mandakh Nyamdavaa and she is working her way through high school in Ulaanbaatar, emailing me every now and then to tell me something new. Like CNY, Mongolia national new year recently came and went and I appreciate the loyalty to her traditions she shows by sending me this email/picture combo.

hi oh are in london now? i thought that you are in china. Do remember what i wrote in my essay? it was about our traditional foods. We eat buuzs during the new year. Do you miss Tsuivan(meal)? you said you like tsuivan. it has been heavy snowing for 2 days. it is getting colder out side. actually it was not cold here about +2 celcium. Do you keep in touch with other student? I can't contact other students because of busy. i wanna send you picture that is capture of holiday(national new year). it is my grandparents' house. but it is last year's picture. there are big big cookies, and big meat that boiled in water and other sweets.