Terra- Cotta sweetness!

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all tremendous! For I am pretty tremendous myself. It is been a great week or so since I have posted my last blog.

I finished my 4 finals. So I have one final, 2 presentations, and a paper separating me from finishing all of my undergrad school work. Pretty crazy isn’t it? Time flies. But I hope that it is not the case in China. Again I am really enjoying it here. I am learning so much and and I feel great here. It’s not that I don’t miss those of you at home or cannot wait to bite into some Smugala’s pizza while watching the Cards crush the Cubs, it’s that I am happy and content in my present state.

So the weekend before finals we decided to go pretty crazy. Friday night we went to Karaoke with some Chinese friends. It was my first time going to Karaoke period and I did not know what to expect. In China it is a really big deal. What I pictured was a scene kind of like off of the episode of How I Met Your Mother, “Like Among the Gorillas,” where it was an open room and everyone was watching you sing. But it was much different. We had our own private room. Almost like a VIP club room or something with our own bar counter, stools, couches and a huge tv in front of us with a sound system and lights to boot. So it was out own private karaoke club for about 15 people. We sang anything from Gaga, to Taylor, to The Beatles, to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. It was never one person either. It was usually about 8 or so of us in on the action. Such a great time!

The night after, I went to my first club. And it was in China of all places! Pretty sweet! We went to about 2 clubs before we settled on our final location. In China you kind of just hang out in the clubs instead of doing a lot of dancing so we went into one club where it was absolutely packed and their was music going but not much dancing so we moved on. We moved onto a club called, Honey. It was as large as a Dave and Busters but it was what I would picture a Las Vegas club to be like there were so many crazy lights, glass and designs everywhere it was absolutely crazy and the energy was very high. However like Vegas the only dancing going on was the half-naked ladies on stage with numbers on them where I suppose people would vote on them. Who knows we did not stay long enough to figure out what was going on. All we knew is that we wanted to be doing the dancing. So it’s about 12:30 and we decide to go across town to a club we heard about. It was a winner. It was called 1801 and upon entering the dancing commenced. It was pretty much all techno so just lots of craziness amongst being cramped for the first 45 minutes it was lots of fun then some intoxicated fellows started taking noticed to the girls we were with. So us guys had to start breaking them off of the girls so after 15 minutes or so we realized we had gotten our full of dancing so we left.
Such a fun time! Ill have to go when I am back to the states. Hopefully it is the same experience.

The following week after finals. We were to go on a service project and teach elementary students english in a school sponsored by the YMCA. The school is sponsored by the YMCA because these students are the children of migrant workers. Let me explain. When you are born in a county you have the right to go to school there but once you move you can no longer be schooled into the county you move. Migrant workers move into the city for work but since they have moved their students no longer have the right to free schooling. Its a stupid and terrible system but it exists. However these kids were so excited to see us. Upon entering the compound their was immediate screams of jubilation which excited us all. However we did not know what we were getting into. We taught for 3 hours each day and it was rough about 70 percent of the classes we taught in were pretty unruly. We cannot speak the language that well so it was difficult telling the kids to sit down and be quiet so we could teach them. It was also difficult because it was 2 of us in classrooms of close to 50 students. It was cramped and noisy. Luckily we brought the guitar and they were amazed by it. We taught the kids animals and then we would sing about it. I created a song about animals and I am pretty sure I will sell it to PBS when I get back. I started play and I think I can thank Improv for giving me the skills to speak without thinking. So the song would go, “And then there was a dog, ruff! ruff! ruff! ruff! ruff! ruff!, D! O! G!” Then we would proceed to do that with several animals. Thank God they liked it and caught on because it helped us teach them and they were able to keep still, listen and participate. It was a great week but it was truly exhausting. Jenna Guarino, I do not know how you do it everyday. My respect for you has more than doubled for what it already was for you.


So after that week we flew to the ancient capital of Xi’an on Saturday and have been here since. The north is very different then the south. One, of course its colder, two its dryer and much dustier because of the desserts to the north of us, and three the food is also different. It is much spicier and more noodles. The largest difference is the architecture. If I didn’t feel like I was in China before I do now. The buildings are amazing and the ancient architecture is very impressive. I will have to show you photos when I return. For instance the bell tower that is in the center of town surrounded by the 50 foot ancient wall (not exagerating, if anything I am underestimating its huge, cant wait to see the great wall.) is incredible. The purpose for the bell towers existence is to actually keep the giant dragon that lives under the city from escaping. Trust me we are more then glad. Those dragons can be pesky. Sunday after we arrived we went to see
the terra-cotta soldiers. It was the oldest man made objects I have ever seen. It was incredibly impressive and it was nice to check off the 8th wonder of the world off the list. If you don’t know what the terra-cotta warriors is just google it. Their is plenty of info on it or if you have questions just shoot me an email.

I am saddened by the earthquake in Japan. Terrible how those things can happen. But for those worried, though I am in the region I am safe. We were told to stay indoors during a rain should the nuclear waste from the plant in Japan be leaking radiation into the atmosphere. However, even that scenario is highly unlikely we are very far inland and supposedly the greatest danger for the acid rain is for the Philippines and Thailand. So pray for those people as well as the people in Japan.

Thanks always for reading. If you have anything to tell me about your life or any questions feel free to email and sorry I do not have any new pics and that I have not posted in a while. I am trying to get better.

Remain Blessed!

Caleb