Welcome to China. On Saturday evening (Nov 16) Roger called. The power was to be out from 8 am to 6 pm the next day (Sunday). I decided to go shopping and walking around in Xiamen. I left around 10, and headed downtown. Did a tour of the three DVD shops. Of course everything is legal (LOL). They are down dark laneways. You have to put on a dark trench coat and sun glasses before you approach. Later in the day, I found a fourth one. It sounds impossible, but every one has something the others don’t. I ended up buying 32, with a minimum of 8 at any one store.
Even more amazing, there are a few I am looking for and can not find. “James Bond - Never say Never Again” which is not an official Bond movie and has Rowan Atkinson 9MR, Bean) in it. They have all the other 21 Bond Movies, including Casino Royale, but not this one. “Devils Brigade” based on the true story of combined Canadian - American special forces during WW II.
I walked around an ended up in the back stage area of a street stage show. Took a lot of pictures of boys and girls in costume. A few others of the stage and street.
Got home around 6:30 and power still out. Ended up having a guitar jam in the lobby. Now, we are thinking of forming a Western Band to play around here. We have three guitar playing professors - Justus Nnakwe, an American permanently living here, with a Chinese wife, Roger Loy, a Canadian permanently living here with a Chinese wife , and me, a Canadian temporarily living here with a Chinese wife (detect a pattern here?). We added drummer and bass player (both Chinese) from the band at the party last week, and a Manager to take care of booking rooms and advertising. Justus thinks he might be able to play gigs in the bars in Xiamen and get paid for this. Even scarier, they both think I can sing. I will do a lot of vocals along with Justus. Roger will play lead guitar. First practice is next week. I may have to stay if I can make money as a musician on top of teaching.
Went to English Corner on Monday. Played some songs. Didn’t goof up like I did at the party. The rust is going away. Played ‘ABC song’, ‘Old McDonald’, ‘Yellow Submarine’, ‘Me and Julio’, ‘Signs’, and ‘Brown Eyed Girl’. I am a star!!! Justus played at a different English Corner. The band, of course, is called ... The EC (English Corner) Band.
Tuesday, no water. Too bad they couldn’t coordinate and do it all on the same day. Had to shower with beer.
Friday Nov 23. I am NOT an American (in a Nixon Accent, hands showing peace sign.). Had a large number of text messages yesterday wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving! I politely thanked them for their wonderful wishes, then explained that is was an American holiday. Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October.
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