So as I mentioned in my previous post, this last week was National Week here in China, which meant an extended break from school. Classes were held normally on Monday evening but all classes were cancelled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And like the previous school break, since my usual days off include Tuesday and Thursday, the vacation time rolls over and is added to my stock of permissible days off from work, bringing the total up to 13 days.
I had initially intended to sit down with Blender and attempt to hammer out the rest of the issues with my dinosaur avatar. But after two and a half weeks of continuous work on it, I felt I needed a break. Much of this week was spent lazing around the apartment. On Tuesday, I took my normal trip to the Bookworm and met up with a few of the teachers at Pete's Tex-Mex on the way back home to discuss plans for the afternoon. In the end, Ana, Rodrigo, Martha, Philip, Nick (my D.O.S.), his wife, and I all went to a big art and music festival here in the city called Cookin' Chengdu.
I had initially intended to sit down with Blender and attempt to hammer out the rest of the issues with my dinosaur avatar. But after two and a half weeks of continuous work on it, I felt I needed a break. Much of this week was spent lazing around the apartment. On Tuesday, I took my normal trip to the Bookworm and met up with a few of the teachers at Pete's Tex-Mex on the way back home to discuss plans for the afternoon. In the end, Ana, Rodrigo, Martha, Philip, Nick (my D.O.S.), his wife, and I all went to a big art and music festival here in the city called Cookin' Chengdu.
The event was held at what appeared to be a small art colony very similar to Art 634 back in Jackson. A small, castle-like stone and concrete structure with multiple courtyards, studio spaces, and performance venues. Local crafts artists had set up small spaces to sell their work, everything from jewelry, to screen printed shirts, to leather products like wallets and satchels.
There were several studio spaces for local screen printing artists, and galleries to display their work. I was surprised to see that they also had a digital drafting / 3d lab with Mac desktops and a half-dozen 3D printers. I have no idea what it would cost to produce a model, but it might be worth investigating to see whether or not I could print a physical copy of one my digital models.
An impromptu skate park was set up on the concrete between basketball hoops in one of the courtyard, where tweens on Skateboards and BMX bikes whizzed back and forth performing, and sometimes botching, random tricks. Inside the adjacent building, a regular rotation of local bands, performed on a stage under laser lights. The performance by one all female pop-group was worth the price of admission alone.
We wandered around as a group, exploring the multi-level complex, eventually settling into a secluded corner where we could all sit and talk as a group. It was interesting to be able to sit down with Nick outside of work, and to meet his wife, who is very friendly and intelligent, offering her opinions on America and it's educational system. (She spent years teaching high school back home). After a few hours of conversation, we wandered down to the other courtyard and found some drinks and dinner. We also caught another musical performance by a metal band called Yakusa.
Afterwards, we wandered around the complex again to see what else was going on and found a couple fire dancers performing to techno music. Here's the link to the video.http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjE2OTcxNDAw.html
Afterwards, we made our way up to the rooftop and spent another hour or two looking down over the rest of the festivities. Nick, his wife, and I left around midnight and made our way back to Tongzilin, where we made a late night trip to a food street nearby the apartment that I was heretofore unaware of. We ate some Shoa Kao before parting ways.
The remainder of the days off were relatively uneventful, although I met up with Ana and Rodrigo again at the Haka bar Thursday night. Following drinks, we had a midnight snack at the McDonalds around the corner. After we finished we came back outside to find that Ana and Rod's e-bike had been stolen from out front of the restaurant.
Friday's classes were canceled, so I ostensibly had an additional day off following the National Week holiday. Half of my Saturday classes were canceled, but Sunday and Monday were held as usual. All in all it was a pretty pleasant and relaxing week.
Afterwards, we made our way up to the rooftop and spent another hour or two looking down over the rest of the festivities. Nick, his wife, and I left around midnight and made our way back to Tongzilin, where we made a late night trip to a food street nearby the apartment that I was heretofore unaware of. We ate some Shoa Kao before parting ways.
The remainder of the days off were relatively uneventful, although I met up with Ana and Rodrigo again at the Haka bar Thursday night. Following drinks, we had a midnight snack at the McDonalds around the corner. After we finished we came back outside to find that Ana and Rod's e-bike had been stolen from out front of the restaurant.
Friday's classes were canceled, so I ostensibly had an additional day off following the National Week holiday. Half of my Saturday classes were canceled, but Sunday and Monday were held as usual. All in all it was a pretty pleasant and relaxing week.