I am so entertained by Chinese television. Forget the fact that I can only really understand about a third of what's going on. That's still enough to be amused by it. Thankfully, they subtitle just about everything so you can read and listen to the mandarin all at once. Good for learning. I found one show last night that was kind of a cross between the Dating Game, American Idol and the Gong show. I'm planning on doing a lesson or two on dating and relationships for my English class and I'm toying with the idea of having them act out "Superdate!". Sometimes they'll also have token foreigners on talk shows or the music programs and I've found their Chinese is quite a bit easier to understand. Even if they are just singing dancing monkeys making the rest of us feel inferior...(shakes fist) I'm watching a program where they've got this American talking about all sorts of things, but then every so often they'll break for a musical interlude where they'll have the silly man dance and rap in Chinese. That's right. And no, white man still can't rap.

Race relations here are interesting...Living in the foreign students and teachers' dorm, I've met quite a lot of folks from all over the world. Lots of Aussies and Russians, a handful of Africans and the rest are mostly Japanese and Korean. I met a girl from israel yesterday though! I say things are interesting because of the way we all get along. The Aussies and Americans get along with each other well, the Asians tend to stick together but are generally friendly and no one likes the Russians because they don't smile back and are just aloof and altogether unhappy looking. They're not all that bad, there is one girl who's eager to meet people but for the most part, they stick together and keep to themselves and look as though they'd rather be anywhere but here. Apparently there's a pecking order as to who can date whom around here as well but it mostly pertains to the Russian men as they think they're better than everybody and will only date other Russian or Chinese women. Silly Russians.

Speaking of classes, I start tomorrow! I have four preps but a total of seven classes! So I'm looking at learning between 150-170 names this term. Thankfully they have English names or else I'd be ska-rewed. I teach M-W in the mornings, mostly. Th and Fri are free so I'm looking forward to being able to do some traveling with my four day weekends. But, get this! I have class on Christmas! Sigh, maybe Santa speaks Chinese?

I'm fighting off a cold at the moment...I've been told by one of the other Americans that I'll likely be sick for at least the first month. Joy. Along the medical front however, I got my test results back from my recent exam and apparently I'm not afflicted with any menacing psychoses or contagious infections that will be detrimental to Chinese society. They even let me keep my x-rays! When Ariel gave them back to me, I proceeded to turn to Hans and asked if he'd care to see my chest. There was a moment of silence while what I said registered with my Chinese friends and then we all broke up laughing. I'm not sure if they quite know how to take me just yet. :-)

For those of you that are wondering, my mailing address and phone number:

Jessica John
Liaoning University
International Exchanges Department
c/o Ariel
No. 66 Chongshan Zhong Road
Huanggu District, Shenyang
PRC 110036

Skype: (by far the easiest and cheapest way to reach me, internet phone) (503) 616-3052
Mobile: 0086-134-7888-4704 I think this will work, I'm still not certain if I have an international SIM card though.
Apt.: 0086-24-8681-6349

And now a few more pictures from a walkabout earlier today and this week:
Construction, as seen here, is rampant all over the city. And it's SO FAST! The Chinese solution to something like building a building is to throw hundreds and hundreds of people at it. The word is still out on the quality of these buildings but they sure do look nice when they're done. All foreign owned property. So much foreign money is being invested into this city and other cities all over China. Incredible to think what the economic future for China will be like.

The building I'm going to be teaching in. Swanky, huh? It's on the new campus which is just gorgeous!

No shortage of workers in China, this one's keeping the old campus looking splendid.

The main administration building on campus, just inside the front gate.

A quiet place.