sam's tricks

we tried to capture a few of sam's tricks tonight, here's some of them.

track and field day

last week the school hosted the annual track and field day for all the freshman students. it's a pretty big deal, usually the students get 2 days off from class to run around and mainly sit in the stands and cheer. last year they started letting the teachers compete in the competitions as well. last year the foreign teachers only competed in one relay event and this year they piled the events on us. which is ironic because last year we had super speedy seth and sarah on the team. we could have used them this year. i was entered in the 100 m, 200m, 4x100m, a really weird relay race (i ran the 200m), and finally the long jump. needless to say it was a long two days and i'm still trying to recover from it. i'm not sure how i got roped into all of those events, but it was fun. the best part was that we got gifts for placing in each event. so for every event that i got 7th place or higher, i got gifts. i think i got something for everything but the 100m dash (apparently i've gotten slow, or because the teachers i raced against all took off before the gun went off, but i'm not bitter). so i got a few sets of hangers, a blanket, and something else.

our 4x100m team (i think we got 3rd or 4th)


the craziest was the long jump, the last time i did the long jump was in the 8th grade (19 years ago). i came in 5th place for the prelims and then 7th in the finals. not sure how that happened but apparently the other people got better. i jumped 5.07m (16.6 ft), not bad for a little guy. but hopefully i'll never have to do that again.

congrats marguerite!

today we went to our first chinese wedding (not including ours, but i'm not sure that really counts). it was for a student who was a senior our first year in china. the wedding was held in between services at the local 3-self in changchun. the 8 o'clock got out and in went the couple. they exchanged some vows, the choir sang, and then they were out the door. as soon as they were gone the 9 o'clock started up. talk about efficiency!

the only bummer was having to get up at 4:45am, to catch the 5 o'clock train in the morning. i was not a fan of that, either was sam. here's the proof:


here's some pics from today :)

happy birthday jilin normal university!!!

this week we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our school (jilin normal university). it was a rocking good time. there were performances, speeches (all in chinese), parties, and fireworks! our president tim davis came for the festivities, but he was being catered to by the school, so we didn't see him much. happy birthday jnlu!

nothing says happy birthday like a good bunch of performances by students :)


or a lit up teaching building


and certainly nothing says happy birthday, like a big old firework show!

we're back

so the olympics were awesome and everything went smoothly. now we are chillin' in siping. i figured that my blog would be shut down, but apparently we're still up and running, so i guess i should throw down a little post.

sunday was the mid-autumn day festival. so happy mid-autumn day to everyone. traditionally you are supposed to eat moon cakes (china's version of the fruit cake) and watch the full moon. i got a box of moon cakes and on the cover of it said: "shane the delicacies mith goun family! he full hnight moonnises in the, all of us dalued ann bequiuafliu-Autumn Bift!" no joke, that's what it says. i'm not sure what that really means, but i was glad to get that autumn bift.

this week the school is having a big 50th year celebration thing. so TD our elic presidente and other big wigs are coming for the party. should be a rocking good time.

we also went to beijing this last weekend to meet up with our dentist and family friend. it was fun :) beijing is still hosting the paralympics so the skies are blue and the traffic is awesome. they should have the olympics year round there.

peace from siping!

my olympic debut :)

look for us at the olympics! we leave tomorrow morning at 6:00am :) then when i arrive i have to get on a train to go to siping and pick up my tickets and then go back the next day to beijing. long story, but the olympic committee is crazy!

here's our events if you want to look for us (these are the china times):
8/21 - women's beach volleyball finals (gold and bronze metal games)
8/21 - women's handball semifinals (the tickets were really cheap)
8/22 - men's beach volleyball finals (gold and bronze metals)
8/23 - track and field (bunch of events, including 4x400 relay)
8/24 - men's marathon
8/24 - closing ceremonies

that's the skinny. look for us on tv :)

i'm out to china!

poor nini

the coverage of the olympics has been awesome, except there has been no mention of the fuwa (formerly the friendlies). but i did see this picture of the fuwa in the china daily. poor nini, someone knocked her down and she couldn't get up.

2 down, 1 more to go

i've officially completed 2 classes so far :) i finished a paper and turned it in today. so only 1 more week of class and i'm done for this summer :)

hooray :)

in other news, i learned today that i've been lied to about tootsie roll pops (my childhood is ruined). yesterday i had a tootsie roll pop and on the wrapper i saw that there was the indian shooting the star and my classmates and i discussed how it was good for collecting so that you could get more free candy (i love candy). everyone had heard the "rumor" before (except the girl that grew up in another country-that doesn't count). so i looked it up on the internet (because the internet never lies) and found that it was never true, or at least endorsed by the tootsie pop peeps. some store owners, at their own costs, used to redeem the wrappers and give kids free candy, but the people at tootsie don't give away free candy if you mail in the wrappers (which is about 30% of the wrappers with the indian shooting the star). the tootsie people got so many requests for free candy from the wrappers, they made up a story about the indian and the star.

here's the story (sorry it's small print, but you can click on the pic):


on another random note, my flickr page gives me stats (like no one likes samantha, thanks naomi for helping), and it said that a picture had been linked. so i clicked and sure enough i found a picture of sam on her birthday on someone's blog. check it out "www.alexiablogs.com" - interesting. i'm not endorsing this girl, but i think it's funny that she has a picture of samantha.