Epic Mural and Epic Trip, and my city changed it's name....heh?

I had the idea to paint a gigantic mural in my classroom and it's turning out to be nothing but epic.  I just decided to do it, no questions asked of the art department and it's turning out to be a beautiful humongous painting. I had the students write ideas on the board about what kind of a theme they wanted to do for a mural, and then we used the democratic process (something there not used to) to vote on which theme they liked the best. They chose scenery and found a good picture online that they tweaked to make their own by adding a river and mountains.  It has been really fun painting the mural with them and showing them knew forms of art. At the beginning of class I asked them what they wanted to paint and do this class, which none of them had any answers really except pots and fruit, because they always do the same old thing in all the classes. If you look around the art department all of the students in the classrooms are doing still life's.  So I'm mixing things up and incorporating surrealism, logo design, cartooning, abstract and expressionism, mural making, architectural, real-life environmental sketches, etc........
Pictures of the most epic mural known to asia to come.......

So I have a 6-week paid winter break coming up,....chyeah!!!!!!1 yessss!!!!! beat that advertising/media/boring/office/9-5 jobs!........

Taking the speed train to Wuhan Jan 1st.
Flying to Chongquing Jan 2nd to chill with Keegan and see the biggest buddha statue in the world.
Taking a 3-day cruise down the mighty yangtze river around the 10th to Wuhan.
Flying to Guangzhou the 15th, home of the 2010 asian games.
Speed train to Hong Kong the 16th or 17th.
Fly to Bangkok January 20th
Jan 21st 26th bday in Thailand, chyeah.com/swag
Then hit up thailand and angkor wat in cambodia for 10 days
Feb 2nd fly to Shanghai for Chinese New Year, so epic
Feb 5th fly to Fuzhou with Mike to chill with his friends in the south tropics
Ferry to Taiwan most likely between now and the 15th
Feb 15th, fly back to wuhan/train to xiangfan

Also, my city, Xiangfan, changed it's name back to Xiangyang last week....and no one bothered to tell us......uhhhh,,,,,,what? shenme? come again? one more time? you mean to tell me you just changed the name of the city? Xiangyang has lots of historical significance and is known by all the Chinese. If you ask anyone if they know where Xiangfan is outside of the city they will be like, 'whatchu talkin' bout willis?' So now they are changing it back just cuz......china* is quite subject to change, hence the asterisk, it was Xiangfan for about 50 years or so give or take a couple heh's. At any given moment things can change or be sprung on you around these parts like for instance.....your class schedule, an annual holiday, apparently a city's name, your local restaurant might move or just be gone completely (zaijian/so long chow mein guy!), the internet might take an absabatical for a few days...etc

.....China*

the views expressed in this blog are intended for personal purposes only and adhere to no copyright laws cuz it's china* and by no means conclude circumstancial evidence to hold crispy d in chinese prison with one ration tofu per day, two rice grains and one chopstick