i have a month break!!

Boxing in Zhongshangongyuan

A casual stroll through the park near my place turned into an afternoon of sweat drenching Muay Thai boxing.  I was eating with Steph and we saw a group of people sitting on chairs surrounding a boxing ring, and decided to join the crowd when the music started.  Apparently we had gotten there early as the match didnt' start till an hour later.  it was crazzzyyy because first of all lots of the fighters weren't matched properly, at least in my eyes, and secondly, after the first 2 matches, none of the fighters wore helmets anymore. 

Match 1:  pretty boring, they were playing it safe

Match 2:  this one was INTERESTING.  it was a scrawny 14 year old kid who had only practiced 9 months against an older, bigger guy.  The kid got skills though, his kicks were pretty high! and course the crowd cheered for the underdog

Match 3:  this one blew me.  a 17 year old GIRL against a 15 year old guy (who was bigger than her, yes)  poor girl got hit so much, but they were tied in the end cause she never went down.  and the damn guy never gave the girl a chance....wife beater.  oh well, guess he wasn't trying to go easy on her just cause she was a girl

Match 4:  in one corner, a pretty boy comes out with dyed hair and a dragon tattoo all along his back and the shoulder......and the other corner, a PLUMP FELLER comes out, and the crowd goes "WHOA"  i swore the pretty boy was gon' die.   but ya know what?  he won.

okay, i could go on with the matches, but after a while, the wacko combinations subsided, and there were fairer weight matches.

gotta lesson plan.  i went to HK yesterday.  it's like NYC, but better. :) going back next weekend for halloween!

Hello

Yep, another week.  And I lost internet connection halfway through (on thursday); so wasn't able to update again.  So this weekened, I went to a place called "Beer Garden" or Jinwei pijiu cheng...it was pretty nice...It's outside and there are lots of big round tables and you just order beer and little snacks like lamb on a stick, nuts etc.  So I was there Friday with a bunch of people; was a lot of fun playing Kings...then went to sing Karaoke with some people till 2am?  crashed at a friend's place in Luohu and the next day trekked in the pouring rain to Shenzhen's Book City; bought myself a book called "the new slang of china"; headed back to Nantou and chillaxed the rest of the night (besides going out for dinner in the rain =P)  Sunday, I went to Nantou's Book Store..there's a nice shopping district in that area...mmm...will be going there again... and met up with some people in Shekou (a nice harbor place) and had dinner...came home and watched Amelie until I fell asleep..i love that movie :)  except the DVD didnt have english subtitles :( 

anyways...here's some other dishes I've made:

Here we have a Chicken and Broccoli dish from a few nights ago...it was better than the beef and peppers!:

And here we have a Chicken and Mango dish I made tonight...mangoes are freakin expensive here:

haha..it probably seems like all i've been doing here is cook! :) so i just picked out some random pictures to upload. they're not in sequential order or anything...but enjoy...i'll upload the others one of these days!.

at "Mary's" bar...

so many cute dogs at Dongmen shopping center... 

sitting on the station floor waiting for the train to shenzhen...oh yea..and eating chicken:

uh haha...Eric and the male stripper at "French Kiss"

some of us at French Kiss

Thought this sign in Shekou was funny..heh

A hill near the Silver Lake Hotel that we stayed at when we first got to Shenzhen

if you look carefully, the colorful objects in the windows are clothes

Aaron, Linda and me at our Goodbye banquet in Beijing..

Huge snail that we found...and picked up.....and named........Wenabagel

The train from Beijing to Shenzhen:

aiight folks...gotta get to bed.... till next time!

My first attempt

at making Stir-Fry Beef & Pepper!

It was pretty good; I've actually succeeded in impressing myself!  hehehe, now i want people to come over so I can cook for them!

A written log doesn't do the justice of what I've been up to in Shenzhen.  Many thoughts are streaming through my mind, but I find it difficult to organize and create comprehendable sentences.  I swear when I get back to the states, my english will be worse, and my chinese still won't be fluent.  I'll be that ambiguous girl who doesn't belong to any society!

Last week, we had contract signing w/ our school, and I was placed at Nantou Middle School in Nanshan district of Shenzhen.  It's out in the far west side; which isn't too bad because our school is right on a main road that runs East and West all across Shenzhen.  Another participant lives next door to me; we're both teaching at the same school.  I guess I should consider myself lucky because some people are placed in a school by themselves.  I live in a room with a bathroom and kitchen area (not really a kitchen, just an area) which includes a TV, DVD player, stereos, fridge, microwave, drinking water, AC, internet...furniture (ie, bed, desks, closets, chairs, etc etc.)..no complaints.  No bugs, thank goodness.  Some people, I've heard, had bug infested apartments!  anyhoo, i guess it all makes up for the fact that i'm a bit isolated from other participants.  Many of the participants are in Luohu and Futian, which are the city centers.  I'm not TOO far from Futian, and if I go down the peninsula of Nanshan, I reach the Shekou Harbor, which is absolutely beautiful.  There's also a ferry that goes to HK from there.