Blueberry Lay's: Natural & Cool

Last weekend Megan and I were invited by our new friends and colleagues, Kerstan and Karen, to go to a popular foreigner's bar in Huangdao called Catch 22. The bar reminded me of some bars I have been to in the States, with a pool table and foosball table, American music on the speakers, and several TVs playing sports (although the sports were usually soccer or rugby). 

Kerstan is volunteering as an intern of sorts for the bar, helping with some marketing research, so we got to meet the owner Kyle. Kyle was maybe 30 years old or so and had been living in China for about 5 years. His primary business was that he owned and operated an English language school and he opened the bar about 2 years ago as a side project for fun. He was a really friendly guy, and not the type of person who you would expect to meet owning a bar in China (my stereotype for a foreign bar owner in Asia is not positive). He quasi-offered us to work at his English language school if we had some time and wanted some supplemental income. Good guy to know.

Megan and Karen at Catch 22.

Kyle (bar owner), Karen, Kerstan, me.

A bar down the road from Catch 22. This one is for all the Ron Paul fans out there.

Week 2 of teaching is in the books. We're starting to get the hang of teaching and we're finding it a bit more enjoyable now that we're getting to know the students a little bit. We still have a lot to learn, but it feels nice to be in a routine again. 

The students are great, and they often write or say unintentionally hilarious comments. This might actually be my favorite part of teaching. Megan taught a class on Western wedding traditions (a natural topic since we have thousands of wedding photos to show off) and asked some of her students to compare and contrast Chinese and Western weddings. Some of the best responses:

• "In China, guests should can drink as much as he can, if you say you can't drink too much, this will make the master unhappy."
• "Chicken and attack cock are necessary in China. There are few animals in Western weddings."
• "The bride will be droven by the car the groom arranged to the groom's, and the groom will come to welcome her. The car line is quite long, the more car means the more rich you are. Of course the car should be B.M.W. Benze and so on."

We agree there are too few animals at Western weddings. The next person who invites Megan and I to a wedding should expect that we will show up in a Benze with both a chicken and a cock. Also, we will drink as much as we can so the master will not be unhappy.

Also, I asked a student about what sports he liked and he responded: "I like all the balls, basket, volley, ping-pong." Good stuff.

Another interesting tid-bit is how much the Chinese students love the American TV show Prison Break. I have a student whose English name is "Scorfield," which I guess is the last name of the main character in the show. Another student asked me during a break in class if I knew why one of the characters in Prison Break was named "T-Bag." I didn't know (although I had some theories), but then I asked what he thought and he gave me a very sexually explicit answer. Fortunately, he is a fairly poor student most of his explanation was lost in translation.

Finally, Megan and I found blueberry flavor Lay's potato chips this week and had to give them a try. When we opened the bag it smelled of blueberry muffins. Unfortunately, the taste wasn't quite as pleasant. It was the type of food where we couldn't decide if we liked it or not. The first taste was sweet, like artificial blueberry, but once that flavor dissolved on your tongue the saltiness of a potato chips appeared. After having about 5 chips each we decided that we did not like them after all. Another culinary adventure!

Natural & Cool!

Initial excitement (followed by disappointment).