my new video

everywhere we go, samantha gets a lot of attention. so i decided to do a little experiment.

shafted!

yesterday ended up being the day when the station resumed power and we could get on tv. when we arrived to the station, we realized that we would not be on a stage, but only sit as audience members on an "oprah-like" tv show. clearly the foreign teachers were only there for their faces. somehow the wu's were placed in a dark corner as part of the studio audience. clearly we were not going to see any air time.

there was a time when i was in college that i was asked to be in every photo ad for the school. you know to promote the school as a diverse student body, even though there was only 10 asians on campus. i didn't mind, i like the attention :) but yesterday, i seem to have been shafted from the camera due to my similar appearance to the rest of the audience. nuts! i did get some air time when we all had to say: "ma ma wo ai ni" (mom, i love you) and look into the camera, but i'll probably end up being cut out.

the studio and studio audience - notice you can't see any wu's. the tv camera didn't see any either.




rach and sam in their dark spot in the audience.

no power?

yesterday we were supposed to go to the local tv station to sing a chinese song about mothers for mother's day. we got to the meeting place and the bus was ready to take us to the station, when the tv station called and said, "don't come, there is no power". interesting, a tv station with no power? i hope they were still able to broadcast cartoons.

unbelievable

why unbelievable? well a few things ...

1. we can still get to blogspot, i can't believe it ... except now that i mentioned it, tomorrow it will be blocked again.

2. the last 2 weeks we've had awesome weather (60s and low 70s), the flip flops have been busted out, and the winter coats put away. till today ... it snowed last night :( and it's 30 degrees out now ... nuts!! oh yeah, did i mention the heat was turned off a few weeks ago. i guess i have to get the long underwear out.

before today...(ahh spring)



after last night...(crap!)



3. i unleashed the beast last night, i gave a lecture on american slang, so now there is going to be a bunch of students trying to practice their new use of slang on me. i'm not sure why i did it, but maybe because i love to hear students call me on the phone (in their chinese accents) and say, "mr. wu, what's up? what's the skinny?" it makes me laugh everytime!

as promised here are some pictures from my surprise birthday party. really, how could i not participate, class could definitely wait another week.

my weapons of mass destruction

a little while ago there were some students on campus that were robbed by some dudes who are working on the construction site here building the new cafeteria. after this happened the school leaders told all the students to be careful when walking back to their dorms at night. if you know anything about chinese students, this means don't go outside at night for some of them. many of them were pretty scared to walk around at night. after the big robbery some of my students, who regularly come to my house every week, called me to inform me that they could no longer come to our house. i told them to not worry and that i would walk them home so they could keep coming. so the first night that i walked them home they told me i should bring a weapon, "something sharp" was their exact words. i told them "no worries", i have my own weapons that i bring everywhere. they said, "oh really, what?", i quickly pulled my fists out, put up my best rocky pose, and said, "these weapons". they were not amused, with a straight face they said, "no really mr. wu, you need something sharp." i was very disappointed that they didn't think i could take on a bunch of construction guys, i proceeded informed them that i was also a really fast runner (they seemed to think that was going to be my best way to avoid harm). so for the last 3 weeks, i've been walking these girls home and every time i get home i have to "text message" one of them to tell them that i got home okay, or else they will be worried. funny girls.

it's up :)

for a short time the firewall on blogger is not on, so i can put a little ditty in.

here's the skinny:
our little mac got a bad cold and the hard drive is no longer :( this is the second time in the last 6 months that this happened, so i'm pretty sad. i think the good people that fix apples in china are not so good at fixing the problem. so now we are without our little mac for a few days. bummer.

on another note:
i always knew that the elementary education majors knew how to have fun (they never had homework in college), and it was validated even here in china. i started teaching freshman education majors this semester. i haven't taught freshmen in a year and a half, so it has been fun to teach them again (they still think having a foreign teacher is cool). the first day of class i mentioned to them when my birthday was and apparently they remembered. on monday i walked into a classroom completely decorated and filled with 41 students (all girls) ready to party. they had streamers and balloons all over the room and the desks were all pushed to the side. the girls had purchased two ginormous cakes and enough sunflower seed to feed an army, along with tons of soda. they were ready to party! i realized that there was no way that my family tree lesson was going to take place. so we partied it up! the girls had even organized singers and dancers to perform for the birthday bash. we were so loud that the teacher in the room next store had to come over and tell us to be quiet. so i now know that el. ed. majors are the ones that know how to party all across the world.

i'll try to put pictures up when the computer comes back.

guess who's walking?

samantha started walking this week, so i put the first few steps into a little video.

enjoy :)



if it doesn't work, sorry :( i still can't see my blog, thanks china firewall!

in case you were worried . . .

in our pursuit (samantha and i) of the stray dogs, no one got injured. not even the dogs.