saw this while we were walking around in Huangyan Jiufeng Peoples Park. it is called a parhelion, from the greek for “around the sun”.
they are caused by tiny ice crystals called “diamond dust” that act as prisms! normally, the ring is only a partial to the left and right of the sun. as the ice crystals fall/settle thru the air, they align so that they only reflect the partial ring.
the ring that we observed was a full 360°. a very beautiful sight!
we were shopping this afternoon and came across this sign in a Tesco (think wal-mart/target) shopping center. click on the picture to enlarge and then read the english out loud…..
and then look closely at the english and read carefully what it actually says!!!!
when i was here in january of this year, i posted about a sign outside of the hotel for “YOU’S English”.
it is an english language school in the building with the hotel. from our room, we can look down into a couple of the small classrooms that they have. with the windows open, we can hear the children reciting lessons and singing songs.
during the week they have classes in the evening until 9:00pm. on the weekend, they had classes throughout the day on saturday and sunday. yesterday, on our way down to the lobby the elevator stopped on the fourth floor where the school is located. two young girls, pre-teenish, started to get into the elevator when MJ and i both said hello! the one girl shrieked/screamed and ran out of the elevator with her friend! we thought it was pretty funny! well, this afternoon we decided to pay the school a visit!
we were met by one of the staff who could not have been more pleasant and welcoming! she gladly took us through the school. we stopped by several of the classes and said hello to the students. each class sang us a song to show how well they were learning. the children would also introduce themselves to us. our hostess told us that these were rather young students, 6-8 years old, and we could stop by later in the evening when there would be classes with older students that we could speak with!
one of the teachers remembered the incident with the girls from the day before and now understood what happened!
we went back for the evening class and had an even better visit! we met the owner of the school whose family name is Yu! thus, the You’s English! he told us his daughter’s name is Mary, and she introduces herself all the time as “Mary You!”. This evening he was teaching a class on chinese culture and history! strange you would think in an english school. our hostess told us that his friends son had committed suicide a while back and that is when Mr. Yu started teaching this history and cultural class! things that don’t get taught to the kids in public school! this was a very energetic class with an age range of probably 8-12 years old. Mr. Yu had us come to the front of the class room and introduce ourselves and give a brief story of our family and visit to china. then he offered the children to ask us questions! although, hesitant at first, it quickly exploded once it got started! questions about our names! how old are we! when we answered you could see the older kids getting the number and translating it for their friends. Mr. Yu would also translate their questions to us and our answers! one girl asked if we liked a popular canadian singer. what countries we have visited. what holidays we have. do we like KFC! that brought a real laugh, especially when we told them we don’t eat there very often at home! what do we eat at home and what do we do for exercise. one young man asked us what we were doing in our country to protect the environment. (this is only the beginning of a concept in china!) they asked what time of the day was it back where we lived. mom told the story of when we were younger that if we were to dig a hole deep enough, we would come up in china! the kids got a laugh out of that. this class also sang a couple of songs for us!
after this class, we met with a kindergarten class that was just beginning! again, they all sang a song and introduced themselves to us with their classroom name. there were several “kitties”, apple, swan, and one young boy named “elephant”! what a joy to see the energy and joy in their faces.
we have videos that we can’t post from here! hopefully, i’ll get them loaded after we get back home.
this is Stella our hostess and teacher at the school!
Is Another Man’s Cultural Insult!
was waiting in the hotel lobby the other morning and picked up one the magazines in a nearby rack. what little english was on the cover showed exciting things to do! with nothing else to do, i started thumbing through the articles just looking at the pictures. i came across this one and was really taken back. the magazine date was this year. it wasn’t like the magazine was 12 years old! obviously, some editor used a stock photo that had no meaning to him (or did it?) or his intended audience. personally, i thought it was a little insensitive considering the tragedy involved and people actually leaping to their death from the buildings. oh well!
a little further on in the same article was a picture of what i consider to be the major food groups!
come on now, you know what each item is and can you honestly say that you haven’t had most of them?
Walking down the street after dinner I saw this signage outside an apparel store!
maybe they haven’t aired the espn infomercial on his “decision” yet?
On the road again! Flying from shanghai to Tai Zhou! See if you can find it on your google maps!
the other day when we were in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, after customer visits our host took us to dinner. He asked if we wanted sea food. of course, i’m in! we went down to the harbor and took a ferry ride across the harbor to this island that protects the harbor. you could see all kinds of ships loading/unloading at the docks and those just anchored offshore awaiting their turn.
as we walked down the streets, it was one sea food restaurant after another! lots of people milling about. a very popular place. on holidays and weekends it is supposed to be shoulder to shoulder with people bustling about!
just down the street was the restaurant we went to!
out in front of the entrance, is the day’s menu!
these tanks are more of today’s menu!
here is D. and our host P. selecting from the menu! there is a person there with a clipboard and you tell them what item and how many you want! go grab a table and wait!!!! and that is just what we did!
i’m not sure if amphibians qualify as sea food, but what the heck! i mean after-all, it tastes like chicken….
and don’t forget, we’ll see one of these guys a later!!!!
we sat at our table, and obviously, first thing out was a couple of taiwan beer! i’m not a big beer fan, but i like this one.
while we’re sitting there chit chatting, i watch the activity at the table behind us! and wtf? the staff is eating from mcdonalds! there is not a mcdonalds on this island! so some one brought it over on the ferry! (click on the pick to enlarge!)
first thing out was some battered shrimpy thing, long and skinny!
the next two dishes up on the order were brought out!
the background plate is fried rice, with some egg, bean sprout, baby shrimp and who knows what else!
the foreground plate is a sea-snail, okay, more technically a marine gastropod molluscs.
see the toothpicks there on the plate…..those are so you can spear/stab the snail on pull him out of his shell! the sauce is just a sauce! like a lot of these kind of things, it’s a two chew and swallow. anything more than that is wasting time ’cause there is no chewing them!
next up is a plate of stir fried greens with more sea stuff in with it! and in the foreground is a plate of clams!
this is what was left of the plate of clams!
next out was a grilled fish! the whole fish! i really like this!!!!
we really put a hurt on the fish! when you’re done, all that’s left is bones!
oh, P. thought that maybe that wasn’t enough so we had a plate of shrimp!
and what meal would be complete without a plate of squid! i mean come on!
almost done! how cool is that when you cut the squid to serve, the cross section is so weird! the body and “wings” if that’s what they are!
well, that’s it for this dinner. so far, this has been a pretty regular dining trip!
next week in anihc, we’ll see what happens.
out for a walk this afternoon to get some steps and fresh air!
came across a pet store with a gigantic tropical and fresh water fish collection.
it was so interesting to see the latest high tech lighting, filters, and equipment.
a lot of the tanks that they had on display and for sale had a beveled front!
that was just different…..but what it does is cuts the glare and when you face the tank, it looks as though there is no glass there at all!!!!
and then the plants in the aquarium caught my eye!
another must have!!!
you just kneel there in front of the tank and there are these little plant islands/sculptures just floating there!!! so cool!
(and there’s no blue people either! or treasure chests bubbling open and closed!)
walking about this afternoon, saw this sign!
cool! and then i noticed the font…….
how very cool! and it turns out it’s a restaurant!
generally i’m game for anything, but today….not quite sure!
(chicken, i didn’t even go and check out the menu! who knows, coulda been fun!)
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