Friday, July 22, 2011

Beijing Beer Festival tomorrow!

I entered a contest yesterday on thebeijinger.com and won 5 free tickets to the Beijinger Beer Festival tomorrow (I googled that 30 litre kegs hold about 53 imperial pints)! I'm very excited, since while I like beer, I never can afford to try the really nice expensive craft beers that I crave so much. I decided to dedicate some time to trying all the really nice beers there, so here is a list of beers that will be there, copy-pasted from several of their blogs:


Murphy’s (Ireland) ABV 4.0% - Heineken tent
“A stout, not a bitter, from Cork to rival its more famous cousin from Dublin”

Honey Ma Gold (China) ABV TBC – Great Leap Brewery tent
“Shandong Honey and Sichuan Peppercorn, creating an infused beer with a sweet start and a spicy kick as a finish”

Red Seal Ale (USA) 5.5%  - DXcel tent
“An ale in the American craft brew tradition with a long spicy finish”

Stella Artois (Belgium) ABV 5.0% - Vandergeeten tent
“Billed as reassuringly expensive, it has a taste to match – this is top-class lager”

Sol (Mexico) 4.5% - Heineken tent
“A beer for the sunshine with a fruity-lemony flavor – garnish with lime”

Rogue American Amber Ale (USA) 5.6% - DXcel tent
“Infused with a hint of coffee, this tawny-coloured ale goes a down a treat”

Hoegaarden (Belgium) 4.9% - Vandergeeten tent
“An all-conquering blonde beer – preferred by gentlemen”

Victoria Bitter (Australia) 4.6% - DXcel tent
“Not a bitter in the British sense, this proud Victorian is one of Australia’s top-sellers”

Heineken (Netherlands) ABV 5.0% – Heineken tent
“A continental lager that has regained its reputation since becoming premium only”

Pale Ale No. 6 (China) ABV 5.8% – Great Leap Brewery tent
“A standard ale that's light and easy to drink. We'd even try the first five”

Acme Pale Ale (USA) ABV 5.0% – DXcel tent
“A pale ale that harks back to the origins of Californian brewing”

Leffe (Belgium) ABV 6.6% – Vandergeeten tent
“A blonde beer whose strength masks its sweetness and just a hint of white chocolate”

Strongbow (UK) ABV 4.5% – Heineken tent
“A delicious crisp cider that deserves to benefit from cider's current revival”

Brooklyn Lager (USA) ABV 5.2% – DXcel tent
“Not a lager in the traditional mode, but muscular like its namesake”

Franziskaner (Germany) ABV 5.0% – Vandergeeten tent
“The Germans know to make beer – and this is one of their best”

Crown Lager (Australia) ABV 4.9% – DXcel tent
“Australians are a proud people, but in this case they deserve to be”

Tiger (Singapore) ABV 5.0% – Heineken tent
“Singapore's most well-known export is an ideal summer tipple”

Danshan Wheat (China) ABV 5.0% – Great Leap Brewery tent
“Infused with Oolong green tea for a light, local and refreshing taste”

Estrella Damm (Spain) ABV 4.6% – DXcel tent
“The Catalans have produced a pilsner that is a notch above their fellow countrymen's efforts”

Chimay (Belgium) ABV 7.0% – Vandergeeten tent
“The monks behind this hefty malt beer made it pack a punch”

Jade (France) ABV 4.6% – Vandergeeten tent
“France's first organic beer has a resplendent grassy flavour”

Sagres (Portugal) ABV 5.0% – DXcel tent
“Portugal's top-seller is a charming, well-rounded lager with a crisp finish”

Castelain Ch'ti Tripel (France) ABV 7.5% – Vandergeeten tent
“Stronger than the beers that the French are commonly known for, this is an award-winning gem”

Pure Blonde (Australia) ABV 4.6% – DXcel tent
“A drinkable lager with the benefit of being dramatically lower in carbs than its competitors”

Mystery Beer(China) ABV ?.?% – Great Leap Brewery tent
“We'll all have to wait and see what Carl has up his sleeve on Saturday”

Rogue Dead Guy Ale (USA) ABV 6.5% – DXcel tent
“Rogue have deservedly made a name for themselves in the craft brew community – this is strong enough to make rogues of the best of them”

Kasteel (Belgium) ABV 8.0% – Vandergeeten tent
“Don't be fooled by this beer's cherry flavour. It packs one hell of wallop”

St. Feuillien (Belgium) ABV 7.5% – Vandergeeten tent
“Another whopper Belgian beer, but this one's blonde and bubbly”

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale (USA) ABV 6.9% – DXcel tent
“A poppy, fizzy pale ale with a twist of lemongrass that makes this a summer crowd-pleaser”

St. Louis Kriek (Belgian) ABV 3.2% – Vandergeeten tent
“Cherry. Very cherry, in fact. They might even bring their girls along”

Moosehead (Canada) ABV 5.0% – DXcel tent
“Canada's sole entry into the beer festival is as pleasant and popular as its home country”

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Testing, Taiji, and Taxi cabs

You may have noticed that we haven't been posting here. Since blogspot is blocked in China, we've been using Livejournal. However, I'm going to try to start double-posting entries here and there, in the hopes of making everyone happy!

The last two months have been pretty eventful (read: stressful) at work, and unfortunately Lauren and I have been letting it effect us at home as well.

In June our children had their English exams, so the month leading up to that was basically us drilling them and making sure that they would perform well in their tests. Last time, we were 2nd place, and we think that they could have come in first. The head of our English department, Grace, heads the English exams, and causes us no end of stress with her attitude and behavior. Without spending too much time on her, Grace is lazy and responds inappropriately to suggestions that something be changed. Therefore, instead of testing 6 children from each of our classes, this year only 6 children from each age group was tested. Lauren and I have about 450 students, so we asked if maybe we could test more students. This led to a big argument and no change from Grace, but Grace yelled at Bella about controlling us better. Apparently we are her subordinates, which was never told to any of us. In the end, our kids did very well, but we placed 3rd.

After the English testing, we got into the full swing of preparing ourselves and our Galaxy classes for their performances and graduation ceremony, which culminated in this morning being spent at Beijing University's auditorium, performing for about 2-3 hundred parents and all the other Venus-brand kindergartens in Beijing. Our taiji performance was done with the Galaxy student's kungfu, and it was fantastic! Our other performance was done with all the foreign teachers from the other Venus kindergartens, except for one. The one left out was because the performance was spearheaded by Grace, who has a poor relationship with the principal at a certain campus, so that principal refused to send her teachers. Grace, again, caused us a lot of stress and ended up hurting our performance.

I think I should step back. Several weeks ago, Grace came and told us that on the next day, all the other foreign teachers would come to prepare our foreign teacher performance. This was a surprise to us, and the next day we found out that they hadn't even been told why they were coming here. Grace tried to get us to perform a Beijing Opera, and we quickly put together a plan that was at least feasible. I rewrote the song "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus to "Party in the PRC" and we decided to sing that. For your amusement, here are the lyrics:

Party In The PRC

I hopped off the plane at PEK
with a dream and my cardigan
welcome to The Middle Kingdom, (woah)
am I gonna fit in?

Jumped in the cab,
Here I am for the first time
Look to the right and I see Tiananmen
Why is the air so dirty?
Everybody seems so youhao(friendly)

My duzi(stomach) turnin and I'm feelin kinda home sick
Too much pressure and I'm nervous,
That's when the siji(taxidriver) turned on the radio
and a Jay Chou song was on
and the Jay Chou song was on
and the Jay Chou song was on

CHORUS:
So I put my shou(hands) up
They’re playing my song,
And the butterflys fly away
Noddin’ my tou(head) like yeah
Moving my yao(hips) like yeah,
And I got my shou(hands) up,
They’re playin my song
I know I'm gonna be ok
Yeah, It's a party in the PRC
Yeah, It's a party in the PRC

Get to school in my taxi cab
Everybody's lookin at me now
Like “na ge waiguoren shi shei?” (whos that foreigner)
She gotta be from out of town”

So hard with pengyou(friends) not around me
Its definitely not a Nashville party
Cause’ all I see are stilletos
I guess I never got the memo

My duxi(stomach) turnin and I'm feelin kinda home sick
Too much pressure and I'm nervous
That's when the D.J. dropped my favorite tune
and a Yao Chen song was on
and the Yao Chen song was on
and the Yao Chen song was on

CHORUS:
So I put my shou(hands) up
They’re playing my song,
And the butterflys fly away
Noddin’ my tou(head) like yeah
Moving my yao(hips) like yeah,
And I got my shou(hands) up,
They’re playin my song
I know I'm gonna be ok
Yeah, It's a party in the PRC
Yeah, It's a party in the PRC

Feel like hoppin' on a flight (on a flight)
Back to my hometown tonight (town tonight)
Something stops me everytime (everytime)
The DJ plays my song and I feel alright!


CHORUS:
So I put my shou(hands) up
They’re playing my song,
And the butterflys fly away
Noddin’ my tou(head) like yeah (Oh, nodding my tou(head))
Moving my yao(hips) like yeah, (Ooh Yeah)
And I got my shou(hands) up,
They’re playin my song
I know I'm gonna be ok (gonna be okay)
Yeah (huh huh), It's a party in the PRC (Yeah)
Yeah, It's a party in the PRC

So I put my shou(hands) up
They’re playing my song,
And the butterflys fly away (flying away)
Noddin’ my tou(head) like yeah (nodding my tou(head) like yeah)
Moving my yao(hips) like yeah, (moving my yao(hips) like yeah)
And I got my shou(hands) up,
They’re playin my song
I know I'm gonna be ok (I'm gonna be okay)
Yeah (Yeah), It's a party in the PRC
Yeah (hahaha), It's a party in the PRC (Party in the PRC!)


Anyways, at every step of planning Grace sidestepped answering our questions or getting us the needed materials to do anything (like building an 18-foot taxi cab) resulting in us having the worst-looking performance there. I think we made it work with our enthusiasm, but the other performances had background decorations, videotaped introductions and professional lighting, all things we asked for at the beginning but never got. The fact of the matter is, we were put in a stressful situation, and we let it affect us too much. If we didn't back up from preparing this we may have hurt our taiji performance. The one thing that astounds Lauren and I is how much school we have had to miss for these things. I haven't even seen some of my students in weeks! I only taught 4 days these last 3 weeks because of all the rehearsing and prop-making.

Lauren and I have come out of this with a life lesson though. We know now that we have to take these things in stride. There was nothing we could have done to improve this, because we tried our best to get help and change the mistakes that were made. Instead of letting this stress us out and keep us from posting, we should have taken it and rolled with the punches. Semper Gumby and all that.


!!!Big News!!!
-Lauren is quitting our school in September and starting school at Beijing Language and Culture University, taking a 20 week immersion course. At the end of that, we plan on returning to America and beginning our job search there.

-Will and Jane (Greg's dad and stepmom) will be visiting in the beginning of August, and we are extremely excited to see them and show them what we love about China.

-Lauren will be coming back to visit America after they leave! I believe the dates are August 13-28, but don't quote me on that. I will make Lauren post up a planned itinerary so you can all plan on seeing her. Be sure to buy her dinner guys, since plane tickets are EXPENSIVE!

We'll try to post more, especially now that we should be coming home a little more relaxed. Love ya'll!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Last Day in America!

Women kuai qu zhongguo! (We're leaving for China soon)

Today is our last day in the States! The time has simply flown by what with moving out of our apartments and trying to see everyone one last time. We left Austin for good on Monday night; we packed Greg's beat up little Saturn to the roof and made the hot, AC-less three hour drive to Houston.

Hanging out with Greg's family and Tim and Steph has occupied us for the past few days. We went to Tim's White Coat Ceremony last night for his medical school where he took the hippocratic oath and received his white doctor's coat. Go gege Tim daifu!

Right now Greg and I are sitting in Terminal S11 at the Seattle airport, waiting to depart for Beijing. It was about a five hour flight from Houston to Seattle, and I am definitely not looking forward to sitting down for this upcoming 11 hour flight. Bu hao! :(

But, it's all for the sake of adventure! Just now in the food court we met a lady that was flying to Switzerland to climb Mt. Blanc and had been all over the world. That's the best part about travel - meeting so many new, amazing people that make you want go out and do something incredible with your own life.

To be honest, as soon as Greg and I walked into Bush International Airport, all of the bittersweet feelings of leaving everyone behind vanished and now there's just excitement flitting around inside our tummies. Not that we won't miss y'all - far from it - but I think we're ready for this adventure to start.

- Lauren

Friday, July 30, 2010

Introduction and Getting Prepared


Ni hao ma!

I figure to get this post started, I'll give you more information about our departure. We are flying out from Houston on August 13th in the morning to Newark and then onward to Beijing. I didn't really think of New Jersey as an international jumping point, but I suppose it makes sense.

This weekend Lauren and I move most of our belongings to San Antonio with Tim and Stephanie. For those of you who don't know, Tim is my friend and ex-roommate who is moving into an apartment in Houston with Stephanie, Lauren's sister. We are taking much to Lauren and Stephanie's dad's house and helping them move to Houston from there. When we return, we will pack the rest of our stuff to take to San Antonio and spend much time saying goodbye to friends before we go to Houston to catch our flight.

Preparing for a long international trip is mostly freezing accounts, getting shots (luckily none are advised fro Bejing), and making sure finances are good (student loans and costs of living abroad.) Lauren and I still need to get dental check ups before we leave, but other than that we only need to finish packing. The only hang-up I have found so far is that Verizon does not offer any year-long account freezes, so we have to cancel our accounts and pay the fees required. I am not happy with that, and will not be a returning customer when we get back.

In preparation, friends should add either gregwebster or lauren.neal to Skype so we can talk to you in person from China!

Lauren and I are definitely nervous but excited. This will be fantastic, and we are going to enjoy this so much. Thanks for coming along for the ride with us!