Lets see how well I do with Russian

It was a very mild two weeks. I'm back tracking here, because I haven't been on for awhile. I had quite a boring week after our big Great Wall/Party day. I no longer worked in the basement of the library, but moved up a floor, to the childrens section. The librarian acting as our supervisor was very nice. Although the work indeed sucked, I beared it and did it. I once again, organized books. Makes me wonder if the librarians ever have any free time. But this was the kids section, and I know those little bastards rarely put them back properly. I was working solo quite a bit, as Yuchan would have places to go, Gary would be late, and Nancy...well, she hasn't shown up once. I did a great job organizing the books and the librarian appreciated it. So much, that she took us out for lunch across the street. It was a great meal, and she really seemed to like us. She's even going to try to bring us to her house for a bbq! Like, a REAL bbq! So I'm looking forward to that. Otherwise, after work, I'd been going home and organizing my food workshop and environment EAD. It was a simple schedule, with a Nintendo DS break in between.

Friday came, and we participated in Felix and Anthonys EAD on the minorities in China. It was a well planned EAD. We visited a buddhist temple, then a mosque, and had some traditional minority food in a cafeteria. However, I think it blended with Chinese food too much, and we couldn't really tell a difference. The afternoon was ended with an excellent betting game for trying to learn about the minorities and interesting facts about their lives. That night, a few of us went to meet with another CWY alumni living in Beijing; Michelle, from Quebec. He was pretty cool. He told us some stories, we told him some stories, and we went for dinner at a Russian restaurant. There was a lot of meat on the menu. I'm getting a bit sick of meat. I need some fresh veggies when I get home! Anyway, there was also a Russian wedding going on. So it was a bit loud, but there were a few cute girls. Two of them named Natalie and Anya. A little friendly dancing, and your hot shit with the Russians! I was the only one who was friendly and danced, and played game where you pass an orange from under your chin to the next person. Although I wasn't so good at that, they brought me back for another game. I was a bit iffy about being blind folded, but not so much after I was told I had to find the bread off of Natalies body. I love those Russians. A phone number later, I'm getting Russian lessons by text. Not to mention, I had the most succulent steak, and possibly most disgusting green beer, ever!

The following morning, I went with Sadie, Heather, Felix and his host mother, Aunty Gwei, to go tea shopping in the tea district. We spent the whole morning looking at tea, tea pots, and drinking tea before we bought some. I won't say who, but some people are getting some tea when I come home! We caught up with the rest of the group after being 2 and a half hours late. Whoops. Bad bus! We walked around the Chaoyang district, looking at the architecture of some new buildings being constructed. We saw the soon-to-be tallest building in the world, the CCTV tower, that you have to see to believe, and another one that looked like it was stomped on. Those Beijing arcitects sure know how to dream.

But we didn't stop there. I went with Sadie, Lyndsay and Lilly on Sunday morning to check out Beijing universities. I will admit, it was a bit boring; I just mainly wanted to get out and sight see. But the universities were indeed very nice, and quite large. But my feet weren't up to it. Lately, my feet have been hurting real bad on account of walking, almost, ALL the time! And I think my new shoes don't fit quite so well. Damn skinny Chinese feet!

Mondays CAD was a trip to the Natural History Museum. Although I have indeed been to a few museums, I hadn't seen many dinosaurs. Or dead bodies in jars! The human body portion was quite neat. However, quite a few parts of the exhibits were either broken, unfinished, or innaccurate. I don't think Quebec gets too many cougars, and BC gets bears as well as Alaska. I don't know, I just found some parts funny, being a North American. We chilled in the Temple of Heaven park after lunch, sitting on the grass, reading, hacky sacking, or listening to music. It was a very peaceful time. We are trying to ready ourselves for the end. Yes, the end. It's coming very soon I must say. I will be home in about 3 weeks. I know most of you are excited, because I know I sure am. We're trying hard to put together our final workshops for debriefing, including reflection, what we've learned and how we've grown. I know we've all done that. This last week has allowed me to do that a lot. I'm finding myself thinking about my up and coming bike trip more then I do the program now. But it really ties into a workshop we plan on doing; what have I learned? You know, you have to show something for 6 months. China has lagged a lot according to the CWY program, but I still have learned a lot. It's hard to describe in text, but just maturing. I remember doing the same excercise at the end of Katimavik; who will I be in the next 5 years, and what will this/these programs have done to make it so? These are large chapters in my life, each a puzzle piece, connecting eachother more and more the further I go. With each new piece, they connect to the past ones more intricately, building the puzzle that is the person I will become. Thats the imagery I use anyway. It might explain my actions or what I say when I come home. 3 more weeks...as Andy says, "Wow...how time flies"

"Shaolin monkeys" - Maxime

Let me explain some of my titles - I hate coming up with clever titles, so they sometimes pertain to the chapter I'm writing about, other times, they are random yet funny quotes from my dear group members. I have been forming a habit of writing down random quotes that people say, so that should we ever hear the quote again, we can laugh as we are reminded of a whole story that we had forgot.

I'm not gonna lie. It was a brutal week of work. Brutal in the sense that it sucked ass. But what came afterwards was always worth waiting for. One such thing was an amazing show: the History of Kung-Fu. Yes. Kung-fu! The very same ass-kicking moves that everyone loves to see, with a bit of story to it actually. It was awesome. We attended Lyndsay and Lilly's EAD on social services which was interesting. I know I use that word a lot when describing the EAD's, but its appropriate. And it was there we met Ben and Jackie, other CWY supervisors who were visiting. Jackie was cool for several reasons. First, lets rewind to the day before. Jamie called me about the kung-fu show and then out of the blue, asked me if I knew Kelly and Glenn and "JAKE!" to which I finished his sentence. He was naming Katimavik people I met in Hazelton. Jackie found out there was a participate in our group who was from there, and was getting Jamie to see if I remembered them. Jackie was their Katimavik supervisors! I met her! THIS was the small world connection I was waiting for here in Beijing! It happened several times in Katimavik, and I knew it would happen again. It actually spawned a web of connections, with Katimavik, CWY and random people that I knew who were all connected through me. I actually drew a map, which was unbelievable to a few of my friends. It's too much to write, but I'm gonna try to get an online drawing or something to show you. The world is not a big place, that's for sure. So after the EAD, we were asked who wanted to go to the Great Wall. There was an impromptu trip that would happen the next day. I really wanted to go back, and take much more pictures, so I went. It was a big Saturday planned out; wake up early, go to the Great Wall in the day, come back, and go clubbing and stay in a hotel at night. Flawless, right? Well, we managed to get to the Great Wall, Felix, Saidie, Heather, Jamie, Jackie and I. Jackie told many stories, and just loved Hazelton, which just made me beam. From taking a 2 hour bus ride, to bargaining a price for a small truck taxi, we finally made it. It was beautiful, absolutely thwomped Badaling and was the high point of quite possibly the entire program. I vowed to take as many pictures as I could. I think 400 oughtta do it. But some are extra. So worth it though. It was not touristy, for you could see barely a group of people 3 towers away. There were few sales people, who walked after you for awhile, but weren't too bothersome. We respected them a bit more then those at the major tourist spots. The wall was even more steep then the other wall in some parts, but I conquered them just as well. 10km went by so fast. I really want to go back already. They didn't have gondolas or even roller coasters, but this section DID have a zip line across a river! But no one else wanted to do it. I figured it was one of those things that would just be the icing one the cake, a one of a kind experienced. I walked away though, because no one else wanted to do it and I was afraid we'd get lost on the other side. I was a bit disappointing. You have to remember though: I'm Devon-fucking-Flynn! I nagged Felix, and it didn't take much, until he broke and we ran back, and bought our cheaper-then expected tickets. 35 yuan, about 5$ for a zip line on the great wall? Best $5 anyone could ever spend! I filmed it of course. I could go home satisfied, my trip to China had been topped off. We met up with our friends after. We did some more haggling for another taxi ride, and then caught the bus home. It was an amazing day, but didn't end there. The bus was slow getting home, and we were supposed to meet the girls at a club. Yuchans cousin reserved us a table, and we had to be there by 9:30pm. We were very rushed. I came home for not 5 minutes, not seeing my host family all day. I quickly changed, no shower (we'd be dancing anyway) ate 4 strawberries that were on the table and left. My host dad asked me, like always, if I had eaten. I said no, and I was really hungry, but couldn't stay. I felt a little bad, but time was of the essence. And the essence stunk! A few of us got there right on time, cold and hungry, and there was no sign of anyone else. The rest of the girls were late. They showed up and we went in and had a blast. Drinking and dancing and talking all night and all morning. There were more foreigners then Chinese in the club almost! We had an awesome time, playing drinking games, meeting new people. I laugh every time I chat with a pretty girl in Chinese, she thinks my Mandarin is good. I even met some cute Mexicans, taking a break from Shanghai. You never feel out of place with foreigners from everywhere. We got to the hotel at 6am! I was awake for a good 24 hours, and it was one of the best 24 hours I've ever had.

The next morning, most of us went for a full-english breakfast at a quaint, quiet cafe in a hutong near the Llama Temple. It was great, because it was awesome after morning food, but also because it was a regular breakfast. Sausages, eggs, toast, beans, button mushrooms, hashbrowns, bacon. I kid you not, I almost cried. And when I picked up that fork, an odd feeling came over me. I haven't used a fork before that. Sure, it may have been heavy, but it still felt weird. I've been in China too long. It was the most delicious meal I have had here. Actually, one of the most expensive too, 65 yuan. But as with most things, it was so worth it.

So obviously, I'm very tired today. We all were, and are a little crabby to say. But it's not because of the previous activities (although I'm sure a 10km hike and partying all night doesn't leave people too bubbly the next morning) but it is now exactly one month until I return to Canada, although not necessarily home. I'm sure it's spawned lots of personal thinking and reflection. It has to me. I tried not to start counting, but it was hard. I started at 1 month, 9 days. I miss home. I've added a lot more to my to-do list, which things are being crossed off slowly but surely. The 2nd visit to the Great Wall, the latest. Many of us have personal things to get done, some having to do with our host families, some counterparts, some back home with loved ones or work. I have all of the above. I'm not sure what it's going to do to the rest of us. But talking with Jackie, and indeed everyone around me, it's concreted the fact that this is my story, not anyone elses. This is my experience, to which I have to make the best of. I have a month to figure out how to do that.

"We just want you to be happy"

Good lord, the last month is taking too long. And I'd like to say, I do appreciate peoples comments that I'm in China, I should be enjoying it. But you do have to understand, I'm not on a vacation here, I'm living here, I'm doing activities, I'm working. Okay, the work is bullshit, as you'll find out, but still. I'm aware how fortunate I am to be here. However, take into consideration how difficult it is to integrate into a culture not for a few days or a few weeks even, but 3 months! I'm not always gonna be hokey pokey on the phone. I have good and bad stories, both of which you will hear when I get home. None the less, I have a positive attitude in mind, so I will indeed try to make the best of the last month.

With that in mind, here are some stories.

The Canadian-style Chinese New Years lunch was awesome! We got drunk and made SPAGHETTI! I remember just inhaling and smelling it. It reminded me of Canada, or just a homely feeling really, even though spaghetti isn't Canadian and my mom doesn't make it all the time. But it made me feel really good, smelling and being with good friends, just talking about things from food, to the program, to the existence of dragons and dinosaurs (I kid you not! I have a movie to prove it!) We held a guys night, with the guys going out to the bar, but we gave in and let some of the girls join us. Personally, that's breaking a golden rule, letting women on guys night. I was quite adamant on this for good reason. The two were kind of pushy most of the night, but made up for it when they found some hot women to dance with. We hit up a bar, where they ordered shisha and then we went to a club. I don't usually like clubs, as there's too much pressure for a lot of things. It took awhile, but we got into the swing of things. But god, it was so smokey from all the cigarettes! I was a bit unnerved by the friendly people in the bathroom, offering me a massage while I pissed. They'll do anything for a tip! We saw a car stopped with a girl puking on the street. Guess Chinese people can't handle their bai jiu sometimes either! It was the last night of Spring Festival, so Felix and I decided to celebrate and bought some fireworks of our own. We lit a few off a overpass, overjoyed, and then met the others. We saved the rest until we were with the others. One particular firework had a broken base, as we found out when it was put on the ground. It fell over, aimed at two people, but they ran away just in time before the firework richocheted off the wall, and exploded on the street, nearly hitting two people! Happy New Years! But we didn't feel too bad. Chinese people light fireworks on the street all the time, near vehicles even, at all hours of the night. Plus, we could say it was windy. It was a good night. There was a bit of a sleeping arrangement problem, as I did not have my sleeping bag, hoping to use our supervisors, left behind. But we had two extra girls and another guy didn't bring one. I was happy sleeping on the floor with sheets. It was a great night with good stories.

Now, guys night 2!

Same people, one less girl, one more supervisor. Good ol' Maxime. But communication sucks here. Guess no one told anyone else I was coming, but was having dinner with my host family. So I had my backpack with my sleeping bag all night, and had to play phone tag with Jamie to find the restaurant they were at. But I remembered some advice Stephane about just being confident, and I kept that attitude all night. It made me feel better, and not worry about showing up late. I was just there to have a good time. After their dinner, we walked the streets. Maxime and I talked to some randoms, my random being an American-Chinese man, trying to set up a Beijing Beauties contest, with single women no less! I told him he had his work cut out for him, and NOT because they're weren't single! We went to good ol' Sanlitun, chock full of ex-pats during this time. We chilled, went off on our own, sharing stories. I found a group half full of gay men for some reason, but they were all interesting to talk to, including this cute girl named Yenny. Scored a phone number, so yay. But even that was not a highlight. I sat down with my group who barely wondered where I was. Not two minutes later, the table erupted and a French participant had another guy in a headlock! We split them up and took him outside. The condensed version: it was Quebecois vs. France. A cocky french guy came up to us and was belitting Montreal and Quebec, being full of homos and what not. After getting into my buddies face, shit started. But the French guy did start it, even as Maxime told assholes buddy to get said asshole out of there before he called the cops. After we were outside and settled, we went into another bar, like, 15 feet away. Real problem solving there. Maxime was furious though! He steamed all night, but settled a bit after telling us all a dramatic story of his youth, of drugs, alcohol, and violence. I enjoyed the part where the people went from 50, 100, 150, to 200 that he had to take on. Haha, but it was great entertainment. While texting a friend, this blonde Norwegian girl came over and began talking to me. We talked about music, geography, travelling. She had points to make, but they were never clear. Felix joined us half way, but he got annoyed with her and started to get rude, which was entertaining to me. All the others had left I found out, so I grabbed Felix and we left, but not after he belittled her. Hey, they can't all be winners. The next day included breakfast at the hole in the wall, basketball with Jamies buddies, and a cheap and delicious hot pot dinner. With days like that, you just can't go wrong!

We were excited to get new work placements finally! It had been in the works for awhile, but all that patience has been for naught actually. The list included the library, a labour office, gym, two schools, and working with old people. Sorry, no food bank. Gary was unreasonable and only wanted to work at the library. Just like I told him, Maxime made him choose a second one, just in case we didn't get it. We now work at the libary. Sorry, I should say, we now "work" at the libary. Haha, I love my diction. Quite quickly, after one day, we all found out that our new work placements were just as bad as our last ones, maybe worse! I thought that even though it was boring, they could use me at the libary, as a lot of the books were out of order. But I think Yuchan is right, that the librarians were misplacing books just for us to have work. Some books are like, not even close to the right section! And they said they just want us to be happy. Well, here I am, happy, to actually be doing work, which includes updating the website, blog, talking to friends, facebooking, research for my CAD and EAD and I even found a way onto wikipedia!!! But there's only 9 work days left. Nevertheless, I take consolation in considering it what I'm calling reverse learning. Sure, our workplacements suck so much ass, they might as well be shitting out brown donkeys, but we can realize what we DON'T want in work placements, and to a further extent, our own work ethic and how about we can create that. Justification, not just for microsoft word no more!

Pyros Paradise.

Lets face it, we all love fireworks. But god damn! Chinese New Year anyone?

It finally came around. Like a Christmas or a New Years. Well, technically, it was a new years. If things around here weren't leading up to the Beijing Olympics (didja hear!) they were leading up to the flipping New Years. Year of the Rat I should remind everyone. My only beef was that I was told I had to volunteer that night. Until 1am! Like wtf! But I didn't let that ruin my new years. ...Entirely.

We met the group at the front gate of Long Tan park to attend the opening Temple Fair ceremony. For the longest time, I was hearing Temple Fire, assuming they were going to light an altar or something. No. We went in and sat down, watching the rehearsal of the dancers and performers. We were sitting right in front of the world ambassadors I think! Now THAT's how volunteers should be treated! We watched the ceremony, chock full of kick ass dancing, martial arts, flowing ribbons, stilt acrobatics, children dressed as mice and the fuwa mascots, and dragons. It was very cool. However, it was quite frantic, with everyone running about. And the ambiguous style of our program was at full level. "What are we doing now?" "Waiting" "Then what?" "I don't know." "Where are we going" "Lets just go over here" I know some of the Chinese participants try, but never knowing what's going on is very frustrating. But we sorted out that we would just go do our own thing. I went with some of my group along the temple fair and checked out the booths. There were booths all around the lake, more then your average fair. Most sold food. And I love food. I wanted to try everything, or at least the really freaky stuff. I ate fried squid, silk worm, scorpion and some other bug looking thing. Don't try the silk worm. We walked through an amusement park and decided to check out the ferris wheel and get a high elevated view of Beijing. Quite neat. We were going to go go-karting (or go-karking as they wrote on a sign) and pit the Canadians, all who have driven, against the Chinese, some who have never. But we decided to leave that for another day. Everyone went their own way for supper, and I was kind of on my own with an hour to have supper before I went to my workplace. Fortunately, I ran into a co-workers of Gary's, who had a really cute daughter who spoke English very well. I told them I couldn't get ahold of Gary (I couldn't get ahold of Gary) and the woman phoned him, talked, and Gary told me to go with her for dinner, she'll bring me to the workplace after. Yay! I get shipped off again. But the cute 25-year old named Sunny was worth it. And the free dinner. So after, I went to the work place. I ran into Gary's supervisor, who handed me to another co-worker, who put me in an office, who then handed me over to the supervisor again. Not only this, I still hadn't seen Gary, whom I learned would be volunteering in another "community" Now, the community in this case refers to the hutongs. I guess it never crossed his mind that his counterpart might want to volunteer with him. So I walked with Gary's supervisor (as I don't consider her mine) for 7 hours that night. First, we went into a hutong house and delivered a small card, a New Year's gift I guess to a deserving family. It was my first time in a hutong house, which is basically a small room with a small stove, but large bed, and everything piled up on the sides. I guess the young girl slept in the same bed as her parents. But these hutongs don't really seem like impoverished. They seem less off, but happy and unique. You don't feel sorry for them as much as you might a homeless man laying in cardboard. With that in mind, although it was a brief visit, it still made me appreciate the box I live in at home here in China. After that, the night was about playing fireman. I would go around for 7 hours, dousing random dry areas with water from a pop bottle or empty detergent bottle. The intent was noble, but the act just seemed so disorganized. I told Gary's supervisor that it would be easier if we had one of those three wheeled bikes you see everywhere and filled the box with containers of water. She thought about this and decided it was a really good idea, and that none of them had thought about it before. I revolutionized this whole act right there. But she insisted no one had a bike like that or knew anyone that had one. I persisted they try to plan that for the next 5 days later where they would do this again. Luckily, they had planned shifts and snacks, so that was nice. Midnight came rolling around faster then I thought, and that's when all hell broke loose. I kid you not when I say this, the only possible way to describe midnight on Chinese New Year is a world war. Sure, for the whole day, there were fireworks, but this was when they lit off the biggest, brightest and most bad ass fireworks anyone had. And it's not just a city block, doing it for half an hour. It's the entire CITY! There's explosions everywhere, screaming, whistling, sparks, blasts from large ones that make you check to see if your arm is still there. Around every corner there's a light up from fire crackers, sounding like gun shots. This went on for at least a good hour before it died slightly. I was amazed and promised myself I would never forget that feeling. But despite the amazement, I was indeed tired, from being awake 18 hours and walking in the cold hutongs for 7. I asked the supervisor when I could leave, but she said the leaders haven't told them they could. I waited patiently, and when she made some phone calls, we went back to the office. I looked for Gary, but the other workers insisted I have eat jiao zi (dumplings, as per traditio) I humoured them and said just one, but ate a whole box so they would leave me alone. I finally saw Gary and told him I'd like to go home, but he too insisted I eat jiao zi. I was a bit frustrated and told him I already had. He said young people stay up late, but I told him I'm a foreigner and was tired from walking all day. He told me the same story, that the leaders hadn't said they could leave, including Mr. Li, my host dad who was volunteering as well, who would drive me home. I was fed up with the leaders and asked if anyone had tried to talk to them, contacted them. He told me they were in a meeting. I'm quite sure just hooting and a hollering from jiao zi, bai jiu and new year merriment. I idly-threatened Gary that I would take a taxi at 2am if I didn't leave by then. Well, 2:05am came by, and I did what I don't usually do; I said something! I told my counterpart I was tired of the beaureaucratic bullshit that had been plaguing us since we got to China and that he and Mr. Li had a responsibility that the leaders should be aware of. He had this goofy, clueless look on his face. "Me, Gary!" I think he seemed to have forgotten that. He might as well have had a joint in his hand and told me, "Just relax, maaaaaaaaaaan" Instead, what came out was, "Devon, haha, you need to be more tolerant." That just pissed me off. We went to get Mr. Li and were going to talk to the "leaders" but it turned anti-climactic, as we reached his office, he had his coat in hand; the leaders said they could leave. Gary told me I was angry for nothing, but I didn't back down. I insisted that I was still angry. Although it was an amazing night, that still bugs me and will be circle check material in the incoming weeks.

Althought street cleaners came out around 1:30am to start cleaning, there's still bits of fireworks debris everywhere. My first thought before all this was "Who the hell is gonna clean up this mess?" Thoses guys have a big job ahead of them; kudos.

The days after have been going by fast and full of friends. I've visited my host family's aunts house for dinner and almost every day, have went to a different temple fair with friends. They are everywhere around the city, at parks, at actual temples. Most sell the same stuff or foods, but some sell something unique or have cool performances you don't see elsewhere, so it's nice to get out and explore, never knowing what you're going to see. Although yesterday, I took a break and took some me time. I received money my friend lent me, as well as her remaining calling card minutes to which I used to call my previous host mom, Brenda! She was so happy to hear from me, which makes me wonder why they haven't called me! That day, I also had dinner with a CWY alumi ex-pat living here in Beijing! I brought some of my group along and we had a great night, talking about working here in Beijing, the differences in programs, and the New Year's here. And today, we're celebrating our own Canadian Chinese New Year's party at our supervisors house, who, ahem, left us the key to feed his turtles. Should be fun!

GONG XI FA CAI! It means make lots of money or something.

And the poop jokes just kept coming!

I didn't think I could get any more dramatic then I did last entry, but come on! I'm Devon freakin' Flynn! I have a flair for the theatrics! And if you don't agree, then quit reading and fuck off! As per the last blog, I find it pointless to lie on this travel blog. I could surely put how amazing things are, how I've made friends for a lifetime, but thats boring. I write reality, through my eyes, as that's what I see. With that in mind, read on...

But none the less, it was one hell of a weekend, I cannot deny that. It was in fact our mid-project camp. It has been under debate for awhile, as we chose a date before the 2 week Spring Festival, during which obviously was not an option, as the Chinese participants all had to work. However, as we soon discovered, although the date may have been inconvienent for them, it was extremely convienent and well placed for us. As usual, the middle time frame is where it gets tough and people get home sick. Except the Chinese participants in this case. As they are home. We needed a break from our host families and the city. It was a bit rough and tumble, getting started, as information was a bit limited and no one truly ever knew what was going on. We woke up early, meeting at a subway station, and from there, catching a 919 bus, one of many. We rode it for about 2 hours out of Beijing city. We caught another bus, and then another. Few of us knew where we were going, but we knew we were going far and away. Mountains and villages full of dry dead fields were everywhere. We got off in one of those towns. Actually, it quite reminded me of Hazelton. Butt-fuck nowhere. I was quite eager to share this with my group. We unpacked our bags at a small bed and breakfast that you would never guess was. The staff was few but friendly, and the place was welcoming but far from warm. In fact, it was freezing. Most of us never took our clothes off that weekend! But the Canadians loved it, and I'm sure the Chinese were quite miserable. They had seen the country sides like this before, and I'm sure most of them could care less. We started up some workshops
, focusing on group dynamics. These were put together by the Canadians and a few Chinese. They were well planned I think and well executed as well. However, the fault in this lay that several counterparts were missing, and would show up later that afternoon, and some had to leave the next day! Mine was one of them. However, before he left, I managed to have a talk with him about our work placement and my deep disatisfaction with it. Although nothing new had changed, it was a little more structured now. However, I would have really liked to have done the counterpart contract review with him. I haven't met some of my goals and I don't think he's met some of his. I was a bit disappointed in this, and in place, did a graph on my own of my up and down times of the program and wrote out the many things I missed back home in Canada. We're all home sick, I told you. Most mid-project camps are about bonding and strengthening those bonds and becoming better counterparts, teachers and even friends. Well oh my, aren't we the exception! Most of the counterparts talked at one point or another, discussing problems and communication. However, it was a lost cause. Keep in mind, some counterpart pairs still get along. We night held its own surprises. We were treated with fireworks by the village chief or mayor or whatever. Our guess is that they used the money we paid the bed and breakfast for was used to pay for them. We shopped for our own as well, but they were too expensive. Upon telling the mayor this, he offered to get us a deal, but we declined as we didn't want to impose and we would see plenty during the Spring Festival. We had a few drinks and played cards in Maxime's room. The next morning, we were a bit shocked to find the Chinese participants (or who was left) left for the bus without us, inciting that the Canadians were always late. Not only was it not true, it was very un-mid-project-like. They didn't even warn us. We were to leave at 8:30, we left at 8:31. WOOOOO! Too bad they walk slow, we caught up fast. It relayed back that nothing had really kicked in that weekend it seemed. We caught the bus and bussed to Badaling. It's a very busy tourist attraction, but for good reason. It's a popular gate to the Great Wall of freakin' China! We climbed the Great Wall! I was mesmerized by the fact that we got to do what millions of people have on their to-do list. It was much cooler then any temple I found, despite having no plaques to read or translators or anything. It was just cool! And very steep might I add. The mountain ranges were beautiful, misty in the distance. I wish I took more pictures. Even so, it was short lived. We were only there for about 2 hours. I'd have loved to walked further. Felix and I raced up and down at one point. One thing they forget to tell you is how many goddamn tourists are there! You don't see them in the photos. I found it to be one big bricked mountain for me to conquer. Even with a heavy back pack, I found no trouble traversing it. There's talk amongst us about going back. I think it would be worth it. I was sad to leave. We took the gondola down because I thought the roller coaster would be too slow. Yes, that's another thing they don't tell you. They have a fucking ROLLERCOASTER down the Great Wall! They look like colorful go-karts. That's deplorable! Using a national monument as a tacky tourist attraction. Did I mention the huge Beijing Olympics 2008 sign on the mountain? Guess not. We had a long bus ride home, but didn't end the weekend there. We went to Xidan shopping center. The girls went shopping while the guys went to the arcade. Figures. We met up with Maxime and his pregnant friend who's travelling around the world and went to Li Qun, a famous roast duck restaurant found in a hutong. It was my first roast duck dinner. People have ranted and raved about it, and I find it a bit dramatic. It tastes like turkey, except for the fatty skin which is delicious. But it's nothing to eat over and over. And they eat it weird. You eat it as a wrap with cucumber, green onion slices and a sauce. But when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I'm not sure how excited my host family was to have me back. But I can never tell what they're saying, so whatever. At least I didn't have to sleep in my clothes.

I was busy for the next couple of days. I visited the Llama Temple. This time, I found it! I was excited to see the big ass buddha statue carved from a single sandalwood tree. 18 meters does it justice, boy howdy! And one tree?　That's insane! It's Spring Festival time, so there are lots of parties to attend. We went to one at the Government building. We saw dancers and singer and performed "Hey Jude" again. I'm sick of that song now. Although this time wasn't that bad. And yesterday, I went to Gary's office Spring Festival party. He was the MC; it was the accumulation to all his hard work (and absenteeism of mid-project) But it was a very cool party. They dressed me up in a Chinese shirt and made me dance and play a balloon popping game. Of course I won because I rock. I'm sure anywhere else in the world they would recognize me and my balloon popping capabilities as that of a god. :) Today I had quite a different attitude. I was very depressed. It was just one of those days where all the small things add up, and you can smell it coming from the morning. The short volunteering I did was a joke. It was at a volunteer booth for...um...volunteers. I wore a volunteer vest and a silly hat/mask. I was the "foreign translator" My job was to speak to foreigners, ei: those who spoke english, asking questions about the olympics. 1) What the fuck is wrong with them? I suck at translating! In fact, some guy talked to our group briefly. They pointed me out and he talked to me in Mandarin. Gary explained he wanted to know how well my Mandarin was. I told him the fact that I couldn't understand him was testament as to how bad my language skills. 2) I had a box full of bandaides and minor injury aids in case someone ill or hurt came to our booth. Buddy, your arms missing! Don't come to me, go walk to the goddamn hospital! In fact, why the hell are you talking to me! Ask the guy beside me who speaks your language. For that matter, a missing limb screams "TAKE ME TO THE FUCKING HOSPITAL" in any language! All this, and I was only there for 20 minutes. Christ! See? I told you it was a bad day. One worthy of a nice tourette style rant. Oh wait, I just did that. We had a lunch with Director Wang after. Roast duck again. He had no problem with us drinking some bai jiu. It's Chinese New Years! Drink up! I didn't have much. I didn't feel good. Don't give the bitchy guy booze, it won't end well. He might end up typing something he might regret *looks around* Nope, nothing yet!

AND ENOUGH WITH THE GODDAMN FIREWORKS! I'M TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! YOU DON'T NEED AN EXPLOSION EVERY FREAKIN' MINUTE!

See that? That's the fan. See that brown stuff all over the place? That's the SHIT!

Yes, I rather like that analogy. When it rains, it pours, and when shit hits the fan...well, all you can do is grab a scraper and suck it up. Sigh. THIS one's a story! So, we've been busy here and there. A few EAD's, a few field trips, like visiting a pin gallery. I don't know the official name, but they make pins for like, everything, from Disney to tourist attractions around the world, and now, the Olympics. It's a 3 billion yuan company. A little impressive. We also learned that emperors in ancient China had thousands of concubines (women lovers) and had no personal time. Quite amazing.

I was invited to Kassie's school to help her class in a workshop with group dynamics (my specialty) I played some games with her students that were supposed to help them with group functionality, from non-verbal communication, to thinking outside the box to team work. It went very well, and was the first work I had actually done here. Ironically enough, today is when I'm supposed to do work. As far as I know, I'll be meeting-bitch; serving tea, writing peoples names, and then probably start staring into space when they talk. Yay!

I also had a meeting with our work supervisor, regular supervisor, Director Wang, his assistant and Gary. What I thought was supposed to be a check-up turned out to be, what I was told, more of a diplomatic meeting. We met in a meeting room, they would talk in Chinese, usually looking or pointing at me, the assistant would occasionally translate for Maxime, and then they would talk to me. They asked 3 great questions. "Hows the food at home?" "Are you cold at night?" "How are you finding Canada's government in comparison to China's?" Are you fucking kidding me? I was a little shocked. I'm glad I at least told them I wasn't thrilled that I was doing so little, because I wanted to tell them SO much more. Anything to do with counterpart relations or do I get along with my host dad would have opted for a much longer meeting. Same old things though, nothing grand and new. I barely see or talk to Gary, and Li...yeah, well, he still doesn't understand that I don't understand like 95% of what he says, but keeps on talking. I was also a bit pre-occupied, because just prior to the meeting, there was screaming. Turns out, a drunken man came into the office, broke things and I'm guessing touched a woman. Just your average day at the office I guess.

Some other great events include going to a dance class organized by Andy's work placement. We did some "modern" dance. It was utterly hilarious. Our group, in my opinion, can't dance or sing. Thank god we're pretty. We've also went to tea houses, where for a thrifty 18 yuan, you can have unlimited drinks and ice cream! The ice cream sodas were delicious. We pigged out.

And then, the story. It was all innocent. Felix and I went to a small party through Stephane and Heather's workplacement, where they had a small skit to perform. There were dancers and singers and lip-synchers, and some small games that the four of us participated in. We were given soap and toothpaste as prizes. Hey, don't laugh. Perfectly enough, that's exactly what I needed! I was running out. In the afternoon, we planned to go to Sunlitun and get suits, tailored and made, real cheap! I took some money out for it, but later decided I didn't need one. A tailored suit is nice, but I won't need one for like, a LONG time. I'm going a bike trip! So I passed. The plan that night was for the guys to stay the night at Maxime's apartment after a night of drinking. We stopped at the Hidden Tree for a beer and pizza ( I miss pizza) and then went to The Red Rose, a Muslim restaurant that Maxime told us about. The food was awesome, and the bai jiu, cheap. The entertainment, better! There was a singer, and two belly dancers. One was really freaking hot. In fact, we noticed her when she walked in through the front door, before she was dressed up. She seemed to like our group just as much. She sauntered over and brought Stephane up stage! And so did the singer, and so did the other belly dancer. One belly dancer brought a snake on Maxime, and then brought all of us on stage to dance. At this point, the bai jiu is movement-activated. We were dancing up a storm, having a blast. By that point, the restaurant closed. As soon as we went outside, all hell broke loose. I was holding myself and one girl up, another guy puked, and before I knew it, we were sent back to our host homes in cab. I'll spare details. I woke up in my bed, with my host family around me, asking me if I needed to go to the hospital. Of course not, I was just drunk still! But it was still not a proud moment. After phoning my friends and filling in missing information, it didn't seem all was well. After sleeping to recover that afternoon, I discovered my wallet was missing. ID, debit cards, and yes, about 2500 yuan that I took out. Bad Devon, bad! I still shake my head. But what's done is done. I'm assuming it's in the cab still, or, if found by someone else, will be returned soon. My memory's a little fuzzy, and isn't helping the situation. It's sounding half and half that I'll get it back out of human kindness, or not because people are douche bags and steal money. Damn cab companies are no help. I didn't even know they gave receipts when I was sober, let alone drunk. So yes, details, blah. I'm taking the precautionary methods, cancelling debit cards, replacing ID when I get home, preventing identity theft, etc. Hey, if they want my life, they gotta take EVERYTHING that goes with it! I have photocopies of my ID's, so luckily, I think I can still get home. The circle check that day was one for the books. Most of us hung our heads in shame at the course of events. We apologized to our counterparts, to our supervisors, but especially to our host families. Bad Canadians, bad! You know what you did wrong. We talked about it, trying to justify, or more ratify our actions. We were having such a good time, we didn't realize how much we were drinking. Obviously, we hadn't planned on getting that drunk. I'm not too worried about my wallet. Sure, it sucks, but I know for a fact I'm not the first person to get drunk and lose their wallet in Beijing. Shoulda been more careful, but shit happens, you learn, you move on. Actually, I'm surprised this type of maturity is flow so naturally in this occasion. I mean, you can't beat yourself up forever, as most teenagers do stupid shit. A few of us got warnings and are being more careful. And me? I have a looooooooooooot of phone calls to make.

It's like French: I can't understand, but now can barely speak it.

I still do like surprising people that yes, I'm not totally retarded. I do understand a few words in Mandarin. My ears to prick up when I heard Fang de Wen (my Chinese name) or Jia na da.

On that note, I have been missing home. I really do think that when I go home, I'll still be using phrases like "wei shenma?" or "duei" or my personal favorite "shenma de fuck?" Ah, le melange de langue aus francais et chinois. But yes, I've been very homesick. Quite in tune with these volunteer programs, as I've found half way is the time you get very homesick. We hit our one month mark just the other day. I'm quite proud.

We have been slightly more busy, but it still seems so sluggish in comparison to what we could be doing. But it's all connected as to how things are related. I'll explain that later. Some things we've seen as of late have been minor, but still interesting visits. We've seen two art buildings. One was a jade factory, but more indeed a gift shop. We seen how several chinese-culture art pieces are made, including silk rugs, vases, glass sculptures, clay dolls, jade art, bone, and leather work. Seeing the finished pieces is one thing, but seeing how they're are meticulously made is another. The next place we went to was a cloissone factory, whatever that is. There, we saw the process of how those shiny copper vases were made, with the intricate designs on them. Intricate indeed! They are put on, small piece by small piece, covered in a sort of paint/sand mixture and grinded down to a nice finish. And we can buy them in the market place for so cheap! It's quite neat. In the gift shop (naturally, they have a gift shop) we even found a 1,100,000 yuan vase bigger and wider then a door. Now seriously. How pompous and rich do you have to be to need to buy that beast? We joked you'd have to build your house around it!

We also went to the 200 day count down the Beijing Olympics. We were to perform "Hey Jude" there. Silly Canadians, we can't sing! Especially this one! Liu Meng was actually the MC, along with his girlfriend. There were other performers, including young children, some dancers, older woman doing sambas, and this HORRIBLE teenage girl singing Celine Dion songs. I thought the Peking opera was bad, this was unbearable. I got a movie to share with everyone when I get home, lol. And there was a african man who sang Chinese songs, which was very impressive. Surely, it wasn't best for last. But we tried, and they liked us. No big ovation this time. I guess they prefer Christmas songs.

The weekend was actually a quiet one. Most people were busy with their host families. All of the youth from universities are home for vacation now, so I spent some time with my host sister. She took me to the White Cloud Taoist Temple. It was very similar to every other temple I've been to so far. I think they have a temple-TEMPLATE. They had this large disc with a small bell inside of it. You could buy coins to huck at them. I found it an interesting place to be at none the less, as the taoist principles coincide with mine that I've been pondering for a while; all about balance, the ying and the yang. Alluding to buddhism, positive actions lead to happiness and fullfilment while negative actions lead to unhappiness. May the force be with you.

I was trying very hard to use up some gift certificates we were given for spending so much money at the spicy restaurant awhile back. I managed to get Felix and Stephane to come. We made it a guys night out. Good, meaty, spicy food, followed by some a medium bottle of bai jiu
between the three of us, which juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust did the trick. It was another well needed night out with some friends, as I was feeling very depressed this weekend. We just bullshitted, about the group, things back home and guy stuff. And what's more manly of an after-dinner activity then going to the arcade and playing some shooter games? My aim couldn't have been better. Jamie was absent though. I think he missed out.

And with that positive mind-set in motion, we seem to be having some group problems. As I mentioned, most are connected. "Participation" levels are low, especially with the Chinese participants it seems. Our supervisor isn't happy that we aren't happy with our counterparts. We barely see them, and work seems to be a problem. Because of their hectic schedules, we don't see them and they don't/can't participate in many group activities. There's always someone missing. Shit, half the time during EAD's or whatever, they're on their cell phones taking important calls. And there seems to be plenty of work for them, but none for us. We are getting a bit fed up with this. We understand they are busy, but the work placement is an important 3rd of our relations in CWY, the other two being host families and the counterpart themselves. If we complain about our workplacements, even to another supervisor at work, it reflects on our counterparts, whos responsibility actually IS to find work for us. Same with if we have a problem with our host families, despite the counterparts not living with us. So it's been stressed that we need to work on group dynamics. Mid-project camp is coming up very soon, in the next week or so. We plan to have lots of group dynamic workshops, but want to fashion them into a constructive environment rather then a blaming one, but doing so seems harder than we thought. Although it has nothing to do with group dynamic, I have this idea for a food workshop that I think has promise; it will go in depth as to what exactly is breakfast, lunch and dinner for the two countries, what foods they eat, customs, traditions, and maybe a few recipes. So I hope I can pull this off.