Weifang International Kite Festival

23 Apr 2013 2 Comments

by smkelly8 in China, culture, Event Tags: , , , ,

DSCN1089

I’ve wanted to go to the Weifang International Kite Festival, but it’s always taken place during the work week. Finally, it was on a weekend. Two friends and I got train tickets, but one backed out Saturday morning as it was cold and we’d had snow, yes snow, the night before. April 19th will go down as the latest date for snow that I’ve experienced.

Ed and I ventured on. Yeah, the weather might be better on Sunday, but who knew?

The sleek bullet train whisked us to Weifang in about 90 minutes. At the station we got a cab rather easily. Tip: if you come to China make or download the addresses or names of places you need to get to. If possible zoom the print or write big, because a lot of cabbies need reading glasses.

Our cab took us to the stadium outside town, but a police barricade wouldn’t let him drop us off in front. In fact we had to be dropped off a couple miles away from the site. As it was, we were cutting it close to arrive for the opening ceremony. We started to walk and lucked into an official with the right sign on her dashboard. She offered us a ride and had the right status to get past the checkpoints.

After the ceremony

Unfortunately, we were too late to make the opening ceremony, which by the dancers’ costumes looked great. We got to see them all as they trudged through the mud with their winter coats on on this fine April day.

From 11 am to 2 pm, there was free flying for anyone interested. Kites of every shape and size filled the sky, the gray sky, though that really didn’t matter. Neither did the cold. We got to talk with the American team and their Chinese translator and I learned that anything you can do on ice can be done with kites: dancing, stunts, competitions. I expected the events at two to have commentary, and there was some in Chinese, but I’d hoped an international festival would have another language as well. There were participants from 30 countries: France, Austria, the US, Bangladesh, India, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines  and more. I do speak some French and Japanese, so it needn’t be English.

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Well, I suppose the commentary wasn’t crucial. I was surprised that when the events started there wasn’t much difference from the free kite time. We watched some more and then went into the city. It took awhile to wander to the main road and find a cab. In the end we did, though it was an illegal or black cab. Our disagreement over how much we “should” be over charged was brief.

We wandered around the park in front of the train station, and then on to some kite shops. Finally we went to the city park, which was quite beautiful, a nice surprise as Weifang is in need of some spiffing up. All in all, it was a terrific day.

The one recommendation I’d make is that the festival needs better restroom facilities.  Spectators for an all day event need some facilities, real ones. Not a few holes in the ground with temporary walls of corrugated steel. Quite a turn off.

 

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Easter in China

31 Mar 2013 2 Comments

by smkelly8 in China, culture, Event, food, Holiday, photos, Review Tags: , , , ,

Chocolate egg
He is Risen!

I had a wonderful Easter today. First I went to mass with Ed, a colleague, at the little church in the old hutongs downtown. When the other people saw the foreign visitors, a nun escorted us from the plastic chairs outside up to the choir loft where we had a bird’s eye view of mass and were right amongst the 50 choir singers.

After mass, several teachers went to the Hotel Mercure for Easter brunch. I didn’t expect that the hotel would celebrate Easter. I thought we’d just have the normal brunch. Wrong. They had lots of chocolate eggs and rabbits. It was so delightful and just 98 rmb per person. The service is so attentive and helpful.

After brunch I had to go into town to pick up some train tickets for my upcoming Qing Ming holiday trip. Who do I bump into but my old friend Ben, the chef of Bon Appetit, and his three boys, who were getting balloon animals from a clown?

Another bonus was we had sun, behind some haze, but still – sun.

Fender Bender

20 Mar 2013 2 Comments

by smkelly8 in China, culture, Event Tags: , ,

St. Patrick's Day Collision 3 of 4

More damage than we had (Photo credit: 7mary3)

I’m surprised, given how people drive here, that this is the first time I’ve been in a fender bender – as a passenger. On the way to the immigration office to extend my visa, the driver cut into the next lane and a car hit us. He apparently believes that if he turns on his turn signal, he doesn’t have to look behind him. Perhaps that is how it’s done here.

No one was going fast so the damage was minimal, but both cars had dents and scratches. The other driver called her insurance company. Our driver yelled a lot, but kudos to her for just keeping it together, not smiling, but not shouting either. She just got back in her car and made some calls.

The two cars sat there blocking traffic. After ten minutes or so, I suggested to the Foreign Affairs assistant that we just take a taxi and let the driver handle the situation. She thought we should wait. We did. For another hour. The insurance representative hadn’t arrived. The woman tried calling the police and we continued to wait.

Then we finally got out and got a cab and made our way to the immigration office way across town. While waiting there my companion called the driver. He was still waiting for someone to report the accident to half an hour after we left the scene. By the time we were done at immigration, the insurance adjustor had arrived. Soon the driver picked us up.

Good thing no one was hurt, but this semester I seem to be having really bad luck.

Opening Ceremony 2012 Olympics

28 Jul 2012 3 Comments

by smkelly8 in culture, Event, opinion Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pastoral, merry, cheeky, awesome, puzzling – all describe the Opening Games of London’s 2012 Olympics.

I love the setting of the English countryside, the children’s choirs singing traditional songs, the interspersing of film, literature  and music.

I kept thinking of the 2008 Beijing Olympics that raised the bar awfully high. The pageantry and pyrotechnics awed me. I couldn’t get over how precise and in step every drummer and performer was.

Yet watching the London games present the negative aspects of their history, e.g. the poverty and pain caused by the Industrial Revolution’s injustice, the devastation of World War. That was bold. That could not and would not be done in China and thank God the British have the liberty to do so.

The queen was great. Bravo for her participating in a cheeky vignette with James Bond. Not every leader, political or figurehead, would.

There were spots in the London ceremony that I didn’t like. I felt the teen romance portion with the rock music, music that I love, was kind of all over the place. But I’ll live with that as no one bats one out of the park every time and enough of the show did work. Again, I support an artist attempting something bold and Danny Boyle could.

I loved how the young athletes lit the torch, that more than one person did it and that there was a dramatic portrayal of how the old and young interact and share. I’m glad Paul McCartney capped off the night and that everyone sang along. I had expected more British stars and vaguely recall more Canadian celebrities participating in the Vancouver ceremony. I wish that in addition to Hey Jude, McCartney had written a new song for the games. I guess I’m a dreamer, but I bet a song with the theme of international cooperation and competition would sell like hot cakes.

Ah, so now as Benedict Cumberbatch says in this promo: Let the games commence.

The White Dinner

22 Jun 2012 1 Comment

by smkelly8 in Event Tags: , , , , , , ,

 

I saw on Paris Daily Photo some images from the last few years’ le dîner en blanc. It’s a semi-spontaneous event for which invitees are told to dress in white and bring picnic tables, chairs and food for a dinner around a Paris landmark.

Très cool, n’est pas?

 

They also have done this in Canada.


Weekly Photo Challenge: Close

18 Jun 2012 9 Comments

by smkelly8 in architecture, China, Event Tags: , , , , , ,

Close up of UK’s Seed Cathedral, World Expo 2012

Seeds of Seed Cathedral

Another Seed Cathedral close-up

In 2010 I got to go to the World Expo in Shanghai. The pavilions each country made were spectacular. The United Kingdom created a Seed Cathedral sort of a cubic porcupine with encased seeds on each spike. I enjoyed it, but thought it was more of an art exhibit that an exhibit of the UK. Still it was widely popular with three hour waiting lines in the heat of July and August.

Exterior of UK’s Seed Cathedral

New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use a “postaday2012″ or “postaweek2012″ tag.

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Weird

06 May 2012 Leave a Comment

by smkelly8 in Event, expat life, Teaching EFL, welcome to my life, Work Tags: , , , , ,

I had a weird experience in class on Friday. As I was teaching, a young woman with big pink glasses walked into my class. She told me she needed a native speaker to review a speech she was writing. I asked her who she was and she replied, “Daphne” and mentioned that she wasn’t a student here.

Huh?

I said I had no time at all that day.

She then asked if I’d refer her to another teacher. I said that since she wasn’t a student here, she’d have to pay and that I thought most teachers would expect at least $50 a hour.

She got real huffy and indignant. “What kind of teacher are you?!”

Rather than define “professional” for her, I asked her to leave reminding her that the 30 students gawking at her were in fact in the middle of a lesson for which they had paid. She didn’t want to budge. I told her I’d call security and she left sputtering and insulting me.

So are all Chinese students shy? Of course not, though few have this audacity.

I now won’t leave my door open no matter how hot the room gets.

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Aspen Blind Cafe

31 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment

by smkelly8 in Event Tags:

Here’s an interesting description of a night at a blind cafe, a chance for people to simulate blindness by experiencing it (in a minor way) at a restaurant. It sounds like such a cool idea. The author is Rachel of Giggles and Musings.

Aspen Blind Cafe

Last night, I went, at the request of my mother, to an event called the Aspen Blind Café. I was a two hour event that started at 8:30pm and was dinner and a live music performance in complete darkness. When I say that you start to picture it, whether you intend to or not, but I will tell you now that you can’t. You have no idea. I went with my mom, my step- dad (Steve) and a friend of my mom’s (Kim) and her boyfriend (Brad).

We were led into the space by a blind server. He seated us at a rectangular table that sat 6. I was next to Brad and across from a woman who came alone named Sandy. From the moment that we entered the darkness, I was anxious. I was able to find the gift on my seat and sit down without incident. Although, I did think that the table was at a different angle than it ended up being, so I sat down at a funny angle. I was able to easily find my napkin and distinguish my wine and water. That part wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be and in a smart move from the organizers all the glass were short tumblers, so it wasn’t as easy to knock them over. However, what I didn’t account for is how small my world became and how much it freaked me out. While I was eating I was fine, because I was focusing on trying to cut my chicken. I ended up picking the chicken up with my hands, but I did manage to get my plate clean.

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Chicago Ideas Week

05 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment

by smkelly8 in Event

This looks so cool. I wish I could be here. I’ll check out the online events.

If I were a secondary school teacher, the ultimate fieldtrip would come from this. Though my guess is that it’s expensive.

Bughouse Square Debates

25 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment

by smkelly8 in Event Tags: , ,

This is a must-see event in Chicago. This coming Saturday the Newberry Library celebrates free speech with the Bughouse Square Debates. They’ll open with an award for outstanding work for free speech and then offer an afternoon of reasoned, passionate debate on a wide range of topics: religion, politics, arts, education, you name it. Heckling is encouraged and honored. The Dil Pickle Award will go to the best debater.

There is an open soap box so anyone could win this year’s Dil.

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