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I dont have very many pictures of myself, because i am always the one taking the pictures. However, i finally buckled in and had someone take pictures of me. So here they are for viewing.
Kormiku on 12.27.05 @ 09:35 AM China [more..] [6 Comments]
It does not feel like christmas eve. It is about 80 degrees farenheit and very humid. The sun is shining, and no one is wearing thick clothes. There are hardly any christmas lights around and there are barely any christmas decorations for sale. The only thing that reminds me of commercial christmas is the music and the christmas sales at the mall.
Cars in the phillipines dont slow down for anything. They will speed up and drive faster if they notice that you are walking across their lane. This makes crossing streets very difficult.
In china, the cars go on the 'dont see dont know' policy. If they think that you have seen them while you are crossing the street, then they will assume the right of way and you must yeild. However, if they dont think that you have seem them, they will slow down and allow you the right away. In china, you cross streets with your head down and make sure you dont see any cars if you want to make it safely across the street.
Manila feels like an American city. Big and bustling with lots of people. The only thing that makes it different from America is the lack of diversity amongt the people. Unlike America, everyone here is phillipino.
I have not yet seen any wild animals roaming the streets or pulling vehicles on manilla's streets, but even in the big cities of china, you will see these sights.
Manila is just like a tagalog-english speaking American city.
Ron
Kormiku on 12.24.05 @ 02:21 PM China [link] [No Comments]
I feel moreso here than in china that i am a giant. I am taller than every phillipino. A few chinese are taller than me and a lot more are around my height, but phillipinos are not even close to my height and hardly any are taller than me.
reporting from the front lines,
ron
Kormiku on 12.22.05 @ 02:28 PM China [link] [1 Comment]
Hi my name is Ron, and I am currently studying in China. This is a weblog of my experiences. I am not a professional writer, nor do I strive to be one either, but if there are any problems with my entries, please drop a comment and I will try my best to fix it. I hope you enjoy what I post on here.
Kormiku on 12.21.05 @ 10:43 AM China [link] [No Comments]
I have arrived in the Phillipines. The trip was long and filled with some fun experiences. I had the chance to explore the back alleys in Beijing, visit Tianamen square and the forbidden palace, go to a traditional chinese art gallery, and watch Beijing's Acrobatic Troupe perform.
The Phillipines is a very strange country. People build their own cars that look like tanks with grafitti on them, the weather is very humid and warm even during the coldest part of the year (late december), everyone is addressed as Sir or friend even if you dont know them, and most stores have a sign that says "Please deposit your firearms at the front desk".
Phillipino people are very nice. There is a lot of respect between them and they treat everyone really well. It is like one giant extended family, everyone is your cousin.
I uploaded some photos and movies for you to watch in this extended entry.
Ron
Kormiku on 12.21.05 @ 10:29 AM China [more..] [7 Comments]
Today i start travelling.
My itinerary:
Leave academy at 8am to Si Ping (12-15-05)
Arrive at 9:30am in Si Ping
Wander around city for 12 hours
Board 9:30pm train at Si Ping train station for beijing
Arrive in beijing around 10am (12-16-05)
Find a youth hostel in beijing to drop off bags
Visit tiannamen square and forbidden palace and other touristy places
Go to sleep
Wake up and wander around for a few hours (12-17-05)
Leave beijing at 12pm for airport
Arrive at airport around 1pm?
Leave beijing via plane at 4:30pm
Arrive in Manilla at 9:30pm
Go to sleep
Ron
Kormiku on 12.15.05 @ 07:44 PM China [link] [1 Comment]
Everyone was sad about the quick departure of our master. However, he had to do what he did to fulfill what he wants in his life.
Last night, i requested to train with the hardest group in the academy. It is usually not for foreigners to join, because all of the students are chinese children. They range from 7 years old to 17 and none speak english. There is also no translator. My chinese was good enough to join this group without the need of a translator so they gave me the approval.
I showed up for training this morning at 5:30am, and although i was keeping up with everyone else, the master put me to the point of naseau and kept me there for the whole duration of the training. This morning was quite possibly the hardest, but most satisfying thing i have done since showing up here.
During the day the master fine tuned and tweaked the things that my last master had taught me, and i felt so much progress in a very short amount of time.
Nothing can explain how excellent my new master is. I hardly want to leave in two days.
Ron
Kormiku on 12.13.05 @ 07:54 PM China [link] [No Comments]
The twists and turns of life are wonderful.
My master is leaving to go to canada today. He will never return. I helped him leave the academy and he will be on a train this afternoon. I am going to keep in touch with him and in the future perhaps meet with him again. I am so happy that he is one of the few chinese people to have the opportunity to enjoy western life. He will, with the help of one of his past students, become a canadian citizen and find good honest successful work. Not very many chinese have the chance to do this, so he is very special. I come to china to escape all the bullshit of life in the west, but he is going west to escape all the bullshit in the east. We are similar like that.
I have to go back to training now. No one knows that he is gone yet, and i will be spreading the news and also leading my group for the next few days, until we get a new assignment.
On the 15th, i am leaving for beijing. I finally got my train tickets today.
Content,
Ron 
Kormiku on 12.12.05 @ 11:02 AM China [link] [No Comments]
They kept telling us, "dont use portable heaters, dont use heated blankets, please dont leave your computers plugged in all the time, because the electricity system cant handle it". But nooooooo, people still used their portable heaters, heated blankets, and left their laptops plugged in even though they didnt need to. The electricity system short circuited a few days ago. No one has any electricity in our building. The only power we have are two cables that bring power from the other building, and it is just enough energy to run the computer lab. There isnt even an estimated time for them to fix it, because no one here is an electrical engineer. The closest we have to an electrical engineer is a czech guy who studied it in highschool, but he doesnt speak good enough english to explain what is wrong. So until the electricity is fixed, everyone here is queueing up in the computer lab like moths to a light.
Someone gave me coffee flavored gum with caffeine in it, for when you cant get around to drinking a coffee, but chewing it is just making my jaw hurt.
My roomate got harry potter and the goblet of fire on dvd, but we cant watch it because both of our laptop batteries are dead! Yahh. I also aquired the pimsleur learn chinese set today, but i cant listen to it because my laptop battery is dead. Gahhhhhhh.
Ron
See extension for a photo.
Kormiku on 12.09.05 @ 06:12 PM China [more..] [3 Comments]
I have never been so cold in my life.
Today i had to travel to the city to buy a train ticket for beijing next weekend. It is so cold that after I stepped out of the taxi, the mucous in my nose froze which raised a flag in my brain that said, "This is really really cold". So i ran a half mile to the computer cafe to thaw out before i run another mile to the train station. It is colder here than it is in most people's freezers. I would be happy if it was the temperature of the warm part of a refridgerator. Next week, i will be in 90 degree weather, and about two thousand miles away from this ice box.
My english is getting worse every day. I talk to all the foreigners by using simple english grammar and words (english is most of their second or third languages), and i talk to all of the chinese using either simple english or simple chinese. Yesterday, someone asked me if i had heard a certain song before and i answered them, "Yeah, chris listened to me that song". I caught myself immediatly after saying this, but how many times have i said something similar without catching it? Who nose? (hehe)
Ron
Kormiku on 12.08.05 @ 10:20 AM China [link] [No Comments]
It snowed last night. Everyone woke up to the early morning training that consisted of... shoveling. Hoorah! Except it wasnt so much shoveling as it was pushing. Chinese shovels are made of a tree branch with a piece of old plywood nailed to the end. No one was allowed out of the mandatory shoveling, not even the old masters or the six year old girl who lives at the castle. A guy from my group claimed sickness as an excuse for sleeping instead of shoveling. I went to him and checked the integrity of his claim, and he showed no symptoms of anything. After an hour and a half of shoveling, everyone from my group questioned me about his whereabouts and i gave them the truth, "He is sleeping in today". This didnt make many people happy, so everyone grabbed a snowball or two and brought a camera to film his rude awakening. Shortly after amassing our army, we smothered him in snowballs while he lay in bed. He didnt quite understand what was going on at first, but eventually realized and screamed, "Get out!!!!" It was a spectacle.
My tiger fist wushu competition set is complete. It has many acrobatic moves including a front flip breakfall, multiple kick ups, butterfly kicks, a 540 kick, and a crazy rolling pounce attack among other things. I am quite satisfied with it, and i will post a video of it when i arrive in the phillipines.
Speaking of the phillipines, I am leaving on december the 16th for my flight on the 17th. I will arrive just in time for the western new years, and i will return to china on the 23rd of january, just in time for the chinese new years.
I am going to be purchasing a blackboard and chalk to practice my chinese characters. I am getting tired of paper and pen. Chalk is also more beautiful than thin pen ink.
Now i must go to view a chinese tv series on my laptop now, so until later, zai jien le!
Ron
Kormiku on 12.05.05 @ 07:14 PM China [link] [1 Comment]