Between my hotel and the university was Lvyin Park (绿茵公园). Normally I would take a taxi between Fengleyuan Hotel and Zhengzhou University of Light Industry since cabs are so cheap in China, but on the days when the weather was decent I would walk the 30-40 minutes and cut through the park.

Chinese kids were the only people willing to talk to me. They could tell me their English name, age, favorite food, and where they were from with ease and good pronunciation. After that they just wanted a picture with the extremely rare foreigner. Chinese kids take English courses, but they rarely, if ever, have a native-speaking teacher. I didn’t teach English in Japan, but I asked my students if they had ever had a non-Chinese teacher. The answer was “no.”

One kid, who called himself Sam, claimed to be from Australia, but I think he was a bit confused. Maybe he was the exception, and his teacher was from Australia.

“Ground calligraphy” or “water calligraphy” (地书) is very popular at this park. Every time I walked through there were at least three or four working on their characters. Do they write poems? I’m not sure. One guy (not the one pictured above) seemed to be writing the name of businesses.

Music could be heard all over the park. Perhaps six or seven different “groups” were playing, some with a singer.

While taking the above photo a lady approached me and started speaking to me in Chinese. Of course I couldn’t understand a word. I showed her my pictures, and her expression seemed to indicate that she had never seen a camera before. She indicated that she wanted me to take her picture along with her two friends so I did.

Notice in the above photo the tank ride in the background. I zoomed in for a close up.

This was the result. Having children ride in tanks seemed a bit strange, but it wasn’t the last time I saw the military/weapons influence in China.

Posted on March 25th, 2010 under China. Tags: kids, people. Comments: 2

Zhengzhou is an ancient city, currently under going some major changes. City conditions can be extremely different just by walking a few blocks. The area around my hotel was more old school, with loads of poverty, and many signs of, and buildings from, China’s 1950s and 1960s. Today’s blog entry features some photos I took on my first couple days in China.

The man in the top picture was parked outside an elementary school with two baskets of baby chicks to sell. I wonder if parents are happy when their child comes home from school with an armful of chicks.

For some reason most kids showed up to school a half hour or more before they could actually enter the gate. Therefore, there were lots of people with food carts selling the children something to eat. In addition, there are several tiny toy stores near the school entrances.

This little guy was eating french fries while riding on Pikachu.

Nobody thought this scene was the least bit unusual, except perhaps me. I realized why in the subsequent days as these kinds of loads were common; some were even larger.

It was a cold day to be sitting outside selling fruit. Rummaging through the remains of one of Zhengzhou’s many dilapidated buildings for some bricks didn’t look like fun either.

This was my favorite bunch of students at Zhengzhou University of Light Industry (郑州轻工业学院). They were cold, too, even though we were inside. The building had no heat (or AC in summer) so the room seldom exceeded 5 degrees C (41 degrees F). I taught in thermals, four shirts, a coat, and sometimes a scarf and gloves. On my first day of teaching (when I wasn’t prepared with all those layers) I shivered through my lecture.

Posted on March 22nd, 2010 under China. Tags: kids, people. Comments: 1

We have recently found an enjoyable walk from our apartment to the Iidabashi area. There you can find the Tokyo Dome (home of the Giants) and these smaller baseball players in the mini stadium next door.

Posted on March 4th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: baseball, kids. Comments Off on Japanese Little League Baseball

One of our guidebooks mentioned a place in Shibuya that sounded interesting. So a few days after New Years we made our way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Children’s Hall. Most things were aimed at younger kids (probably best for 5 – 9 year olds), but we still had a good time. The place is large by Tokyo standards with about six floors of activities. And it’s all free.

Today’s picture is of the taiko group which performed in front of the entrance.

We found out later that these free, children’s halls exist all over the place. Ryan and Ellie visited one near Meguro with some friends and have played ping pong at the one just a few minutes down the street in Takadanobaba.

Posted on February 5th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: kids, shibuya, taiko. Comments: 2

Christmas Eve in Phuket featured an excellent sunset. We looked for a place to eat on the beach but couldn’t find anything that would satisfy us all. We ended up going down an alley just to the north of McDonald’s and eating at a place called S&G Restaurant. The food was really good, the prices were cheap, and the staff was friendly. I ordered a creamy curry which was the best curry I have ever had.

This is the main drag (Thawiwong Road) by the beach. Eat at one of these places if you want to pay more for lesser quality food.

You can eat really inexpensively by eating at one of these stalls. This one is in Phuket’s night life center on Bangla Road.

Posted on January 16th, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: clouds, food, kids, skywatch, sunset. Comments: 2