KTV, Michael, Aaron and a Walk Around Town

The other night after school, the new Chinese teacher, Gary asked me if I wanted to go to KTV with him and meet some of his friends.
What do you think I said?

By the way...This is Gary. He's a new english teacher at the Hope International School of language.



So we went to this KTV(Karaoke) place around the block from the school and went into our room and guess who I saw...Jaer.


She's a pretty good singer...who knew?


It seems that Jaer and Gary went to school together growing up.
Once again...small world(even here in China).

Gary also had another old school chum there...I forgot his name?
But he could sing like a bird and drink like a fish.


And his girlfriend showed up a little later too.
Her name is Angel.
Nice one Gary...She's a keeper!!

Ok, I have NEVER really sung at a KTV bar before...I posed with a mic once but they didn't have any English songs at that place so I never really sang.
Here they did, mostly old Beatles, Elvis and and bad 70's type songs.
After a beer or two I was peer pressured into picking out some songs and thrilling my Chinese audience with my incredible voice.
I think I found Hotel California by the Eagles...I wasn't half bad.(or half good)


Gary and Angel doing a beautiful Chinese duet.



Before long Jaer was getting tired and had to leave...Or maybe my voice scared her away?



But not before Mr. Birdfish picked out one more song for her.



These guys were having a lot of fun...Angel's not too sure about the whole thing.


The next day I called up a new American teacher that we teaching in another school here in Changxing.
His name is Michael and he is from Texas...nice guy!
He studied Chinese for a year before he came here so his Chinese was pretty good.





















He also brought along another guy named Aaron. He's from San Fransisco.
They are both teaching at Changxing Experimental School...HUGE school!!





















They knew of this great little place that made incredible soup. You just pick out what you want in it and the guy whips it up in a few minutes...I love this place. It's kind of like individual hot-pot. Plus it's just right around the corner from where I live.
A big bowl of soup with noodles and mushrooms and...OK lots of stuff I have never seen before.
All for 8 yuan...$1.00. I'll be eating there a lot in the future...Heck, I went back last night for dinner after my Chinese massage.














I invited them to join Jaer and myself for a couple of days in the country during the National Holiday. They weren't sure if the would be able to make it or not...they were getting lots of invitations to do things during that week.

Today

The next day (today) I took a walk around town and took a few pictures of the little markets and people. It was such a nice day out that I just wanted to walk around.


























Knife sharpener.
I love wandering these streets!


















I saw this pet store and contemplated buying a pet.

Maybe a Goldfish?



Or a bird?














This guy was picking out the dead worms from the live ones...They were like little mealy worms. My guess is that they were for feeding the animals...or lunch?













And this old woman who can fix anything with her sewing machine.












I also saw the biggest wok I have ever seen in my life!!












I'm not sure what was cooking inside there but it smelled great!!















Well...that's a few more days of my life in China.


Jim