Sorry that I have not been a good blogger over the last couple of days--there has been A lot going on and the pics were not uploading correctly, so I took a couple of days off. This is the pagoda that I was speaking about in the other post. Amazing. Now everytime that I venture into the city I look toward the square and find it and think about how beautiful it is as you get closer. Red marble stairs going to the top of the pagoda, a beautiful site, simply amazing.

Again, I am the first westerner to enter its walls--all because I refused to listen to the locals advisement not to go up there--that I would be questioned.





This is the inside of the buliding(click on the image for greater detail). Simply amazing lattace work.













The hazy view of Chenzhou from the top of the temple.
Notice the new developments and some of the old slums. Try to pay attention to the design of the arches on the side of the picture as well.













The top room ceiling design.

















I bought a new guitar to ease some of the times when amazing things dont happen. Its a rather nice electic acoustic that I managed to get for $68.00 US and I am so impressed with it--even if I do manage to outgrow the piece or never get really good, the price was right--as most everything in China is.









A picture of all of us hanging out together at the top of the pagoda. Vecila from Bulgaria, the coolest woman in Chenzhou, Our cute guide and intrepreter (but terrible negotiatior) and Mary's boyfriend who is in a Master's program at University in North England.











What I consider the China's most prized possession-their children. SO CUTE! I also bought a basketball on that day and we were walking around woling square, enjoying the summer night and children like these would come running over to play and laugh at the American, English and Bulgarians!!! It was a hoot.
Note:
The philipino's dont get anything close to the attention that we do--he was told today that he looks like a goofy chinese man. I spit out a piece of dumpling.

NOTE: Something that is very expensive here: We went to eat at Harry Potter resturant (yes, I got you something Mom and Brookie) and it is (I shit you not $22.50 USD for a pint of Haggan Daaz--and they are out of Chocolate.

Anyway, tommorow is the day I have been waiting for-- Mid Autumn Day--MOONCAKE MADNESS, HERE I AM!!
UPDATE ON MOONCAKES: I bought a gift box of these treats to send to the family --and when we took them to China Post, the woman said that Mooncakes are forbidden to leave the mainland of China, except Hong Kong and Mackaw!!!!
So my boss got a nice gift.
I was also going to send a very nice dish set to them that I bargained for at the market--and it was going to cost more than 100usd to ship it and have it arrive withing 16 days.
AMAZING.
It will be interesting to see what I take home next time...
Okay--I promise to give more eloborate details sooon, but my eyes are burning--its time for bed--big day tommorow.

Hope all is well wherever you are. Things are nothing short of awesome here in the PRC.
PS==they are moving me into a brand new flat next week!!!! Read more!

The last several days have been quite busy here in the good ole PRC as I have begun teaching full time now as well as continuing to make the usual tourist stops. One of the other teachers, Mary from Cameroon, Africa, had her boyfriend in for a visit from England, so we were having a go at the city with him. He was a nice enough guy, originally from Cameroon, but he is working on his masters in England, so his english was good.

Teaching has been very fun and exciting, but it has also been a touch frustrating and I can see now that it will be a struggle to teach this Men and Women without getting annoyed on a regualar basis. This is not to say that I am not going to enjoy myself, quite the contrary actually. However the education system in China seems to be in much worse shape than I originally had considered. More on this later as I assess the situation more closely....

I am posting these pictures of a new pagoda that has just been built in the town. It is without a doubt the most incredible structure I have ever seen. It is a tribute to all of the pagodas that once used to be the main design of religious temples throughout Asia and the workmanship is simply some of the most amazing that I have seen thus far.

...And I was the first westerner to enter it.
Not bad for a Wednesday.
I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
A small note-- I am starting to post the pictures in a smaller format because it would seem that there is a size limit on blogger on images, so I want to scale down the photos a bit so I can continue to bring you this country as (hopefully) you have never seen it.

...and I am having a problem with the upload, so I will post this and the pics on another posting./ Read more!

8 hours of teaching on my belt as tuesday's class days come to a close.
4 Different lit classes are on their way to learning more about the legend of Shakespeare.

I am continually amazed at both the kindness of these people as well as their shyness in approaching situations which they might not understand. The last two days have made me feel as though I would really like to go back to school to become a professor and teach young minds. It is such a wonderful feeling standing up in front of people and teaching them to think about approaching subject matter from a different way--truly amazing.
I will post more later on today, but I am needing a bit of a rest before we go into town to have a look around. Read more!

This was quite a hiarious photo taken a few days ago downtown, near the train station. We were walking to the bus station and we were stopped by this guy who asked if he could take a picture with me. I said sure and he posed with me, only he didn't have a camera at all. He wanted to have his picture with me and my camera. It was pretty classic and Marc and I got a good laugh out of it after we left.
Afterall, "This is China".








A view of the campus from the Library. Special note on the Chinese Communist flag flying high.
As you can see, the weather has improved greatly over the last several days.











The pride of Chenzhou, the Women's Volleyball team is shown here in a series of statues. This is taken is Yongting park, in the middle of the city. It is a very nice place and I have had the pleasure of going to this park twice now, with different people. They always have different parts which they enjoy.











As you can see I was the captain of one of the ships that sailed around the lake. It was 60 rmb for a 45 minute ride for two boats across the lake, which is about 8 dollars. The girl in the background is one of the students who translates for us to the street merchants and such. Read more!

Very tired today, so this post is more than likely not going to be very comprehensive. Yesterday was one of the best days of my time here in China, if not for the last decade! I can't explain why it was such a great day, other than the fact that we managed to laugh heartily thoughout that entire day. Four teachers, which turned into six by the end of the night--two students, which turned into four --all as we wandered the streets of Chenzhou.
Yesterday was Teachers Day, which is usually a celebration celebrated during the week--but this time it happened to fall on the weekend and it also was the opening night of the International Diving Compititon here in the city, which has the city looking its best. The main sqaure was showing a bootlegged copy of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on a jumbo-vison screen. 10's of thousands of people were in the square, all enjoying themselves immensly. We were followed by a large crowd of curious onlookers --three white people and one philipino all walking together through the square was quite the site to these people.
So much to talk about, but so little energy. Today one of our young guides took Claire and I up to the top of a the big mountain in the city--at the top is a monastery that is huge. I am posting pictures of those tonight.. 2,888 steps to the top--so my legs are killing me, but it was totally worth it. Such a beautiful place, but not peaceful in the least bit. Fireworks were for sale throughout the area and they were constantly being blown off here and there--just amazing actually. You look at such a beautiful place--a buddist monastery with such rich design and a simply amazing view and people just want to blow shit up.
But, as I remind myself daily--"This is China."
Anyway, I have to teach tommorow and this computer has a virus that I have been working on for the last several hours, so I am going to sign off a little short--much to tell, but no energy. Looking forward to the next week-should be a hoot.
Lots of pictures too... Read more!