This is China

Here are this weeks whacky and picture worthy moments in Changsha...hope you get a good laugh!

This one comes straight out of an English textbook geared towards grade 3-5 students... no joke!

 We went to an agricultural exhibition on Friday which featured fruit, nuts, tea, and meat from Hunan province and some neighbouring provinces as well. Needless to say the meat was the most entertaining thing on display. 

mmmmm chicken

Get your chicken!

pork anyone?

Local Celebrity - A foreigner in China

This boy's mother mauled me at the Great Wall for a photo

 One of the major differences between China and Canada is the mono-race and mono-culture that exists here that is non existant back home. Back in Canada, we are used to seeing people of all different racial backgrounds and we are culturally diverse. Since China doesn't have the kind of immigration history that we have, China's population is predominantly made up of Han Chinese people. Seeing a foreign person (or a laowai as the Chinese call us) can be a rare occurrence and can make for much excitement for some Chinese people. Being a foreigner in China, you get a lot of attention...and I mean a lot! There is no such thing as blending into the crowd as a foreigner. Walking down the street, people will stop and blatantly stare at you. The looks on some people's faces when they see you is absolutely priceless! Many people will shout "HELLO!" (the only English word they know) at you, even if you are right in front of them and since Chinese people are very upfront about things, many will blatantly say (in Chinese of course) "look! there is a foreigner!" Another common reaction is for them to shout "mei nu" (beautiful girl) "piao lang! (beautiful) or simply "beautiful!" at you. I honestly get called beautiful at least 5 times a day by random strangers on the street. At first I found all of this a bit strange but after a while you get used to the attention and embrace it...I mean it's not everyday that you get to feel like Lady Gaga.

This girl hit the jackpot with 6 laowais!

Since Chinese people love to take pictures, another common reaction is for random people to come up to you and ask to take a photo with you or of you. I don't mind this because at least they are asking for my consent because many times I will catch people trying to take candid shots of me without asking and I find that a bit strange. I can only imagine how many random photos there are of me cycling through Weibo and QQ...a little bit creepy if you ask me. There has been many times where I have been asked to hold people's young children or babies to take a photo. I think it's pretty crazy that so many people are willing to trust me, a complete stranger, with their child just for a photo. I could have so easily ran away with quite a few babies by now if I really wanted to!

The six of us foreign teachers are quite popular around the school as well. There are constantly students shouting 'Hello' at us as we walk down the halls and it's kind of a running joke that you can always tell when another intern is nearby because of the streams of hellos you can hear as they make their way through the school. Many of the students are very fond of me and a lot of the grade 5 and 6 boys get extremely giddy when I'm around. I have also had kids scream with excitement when I walk into the classroom to teach as if I was Justin Bieber...it's absolutely crazy. The latest fad is kids crowding around me at the front of the room at the end of my lesson asking for my autograph! The amount of attention is insane!

Victoria Secret themed fashion show

There are definitely pros and cons to the attention. Some days you just aren't the mood to be the center of attention and would much rather be able to walk down the street without anyone noticing. It can be especially irritating when you are in a hurry to get some where and people are asking you for photos. I also get a bit annoyed when I am at a scenic spot that's absolutely beautiful and have people taking my photo. Why on earth would you rather take a picture of a foreigner over the beautiful scenery around you...crazy Chinese people! On the plus side, being a foreigner can sometimes help you out. On the bus, people are willing to share a seat with you or reserve their seat for you to take when they reach their stop just because you are foreign. I was even able to cash in on being a foreigner back in September when I was a model for a Victoria Secret themed fashion show. They wanted foreign girls to do a runway show and paid us 800 quai for one night's work (that's almost half my monthly living allowance!)

All in all, being a foreigner in China is just something you have to deal with and make the best of. It's crazy, weird, and funny but it makes life in China just that much more interesting.

This is China

Here are this weeks contributions to my This is China photos. Hope you enjoy!

Some grade 1 students drew this on a diagram  of the body

This is the legit name of a hotel in Changsha

 Just hanging the clothes out to dry...and tonight's dinner mmmm fish

  

Great Chinglish...also funny because it is about water that is not even a foot deep

Great Chinglish

Pork anyone? (this is in the market by my school. Carts with hooks and chunks of pig hanging on them)

A Lesson In Calligraphy

A few weeks ago, we were invited to the art room for a calligraphy lesson. It sounded like a lot of fun and I was really excited to take part in this traditional Chinese art form. Calligraphy is not easy..even for a Chinese person, let alone a foreigner who can't write Chinese. It took a lot of practice to try and get the characters right, but the rest of the interns and I were able to create some beautiful masterpieces that say 我爱中国 （wo ai zhong guo- I love China) 

Getting some pointers from a pro

Our finished products! The red ones that are held up say lucky and are hung on doors for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)

Bella

One thing that I really miss about home is my cat, Micah that I left behind. They say once a crazy cat lady always a crazy cat lady! Fortunately, Ms. Wang, the gatekeeper to my apartment building has a pet cat that hangs around outside our apartment. When we first to moved to Changsha, this cat was just a little kitten and over the last couple months she has grown into a big cat. She is such a cutie and I named her Bella (a stupid name because Ms. Wang doesn't speak English and it's impossible for her to say). Here is some photos of the cutest cat in China!

TIC! (This is China) Photos

Here are a few editions to my This is China (TIC) series!

Just another great advert

This little baby is holding a can of beer

A legit sign found in a public bathroom with a western style toilet reminding Chinese people to not stand on the toilet

this guy is just carrying a few metal poles along for a ride on his scooter

Aren't my students cute? Especially the one second from the right

Police park wherever the heck they want

Great Chinglish translation

I found Leslie Chow in Beijing at the Temple of Heaven!

They have beer called "Party"

Hotel rooms in China supply tea kettles instead of coffee makers..note to self don't make coffee in them!

Just your average power line in Beijing 

Some great Chinglish on a toiletpaper dispenser in Beijing

These two beers cost me the equivalent of $1CDN..gotta love exchange rates!

This is the toilets at Tian Hua where I teach. When standing, the stall only covers you up to just below your chest and it is very easy to look over the stall. Can you say lack of privacy? Wait, what's privacy?  

Paper Cutting

Last week, some of the art teachers at our school kindly invited us to the art room so that they could teach us how to do a traditional Chinese craft, paper cutting. After showing us some amazing work that some of the students had done he showed us how to make butterflies and gave us some scissors and let us work our magic. It was really fun and I had a great time trying to create a beautiful butterfly. Below are some photos!

All of us interns with our beautiful butterflies!

My finished product

Sore legs, disfunctional maps, and greats views - 张家界 (Zhangjiajie)

One of many beautiful views in the park

This past weekend, Sam and I headed to Zhangjiajie, a five hour train ride North-West of Changsha to enjoy a weekend of hiking in the beautiful sandstone karsts that inspired the Avatar film. Searching the internet for things to do and see and a place to stay got me extremely excited. All the pictures I saw looked magnificent and I could only imagine how beautiful it would be in real life. Pictures honestly don't do this place justice! It is so unbelievably magical!

We arrived in Zhangjiajie in the afternoon on Friday and grabbed a bite to eat and found a bus that would take us to the forest park. We had booked room in a hostel that was inside the park, but was  a bit of a hike so we made sure we had plenty of time to make it up top of the hill before it got dark (we were told it would take about 3-4 hours to reach the hostel from the park gate). Once inside, we were both so taken aback by how impressive the tall thin pillars of sandstone looked from below and were stoked to take in the view from the top of the hill. We trudged up the hill with our heavy packs, both discouraged by how much effort it took as we are both outdoor enthusiasts. It took us about and hour or so to do the uphill portion of the trail we needed to take and we got to the top at the perfect time of day, just as the sun was starting to set, leaving the sky with a beautiful orange glow. We stopped for a while to catch our breath and grab some great photos and headed to the hostel. We ended up sharing a room with the only other foreigners staying there and decided that we would all go out and venture the park the next day together.

The next morning we set out to do some exploring. Only one problem, Chinese people are absolutely horrendous at making maps! For one, you are never guaranteed that North is facing up on the map. The maps for Zhangjiajie were awful..we were lucky enough to find one that had English on it (the one with only Chinese was a nightmare with characters everywhere so even if you knew the characters of where you wanted to go, it took ages to find them on the map). The trails were marked and colour coded but the coding system made no frickin sense even when we translated it to English. I think the biggest problem with the map had to be the fact that there was no altitude on them, therefore you had no idea if you were going to have to go uphill or downhill which made is a bit frustrating when trying to budget your time. We spent the day exploring a bit of the park that we were told was worth seeing (it's a massive national park and you could spend a week there and still not see everything) and our group split in two by mid day to see some different things. Sam, Alicia (a fellow ESL teacher we met from America) and I ended back down at the base and decided to hit up one of the spots that I was told was a must see and figured out a way to get back to our hostel from there. We gave ourselves 4 hours to do the route, and on the map that seemed obtainable....baha! what were we thinking, This is China, we should have known that we would end up on a wild adventure...one that was well worth it I must say. As we started to walk the path (a cement path and stairs leading up the mountain should I add...I think there must be a saying in China stating that no rock shall be unnamed and no mountain un-staired-they just don't do hiking like we do back home) and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was a path less travelled on-great! No annoying Chinese tourists taking pictures of us and some peace and quite from tour guides rambling on over loud speakers in Chinese. We started to walk and the path started to head uphill as we assumed it would. But then the path went up and over one ridge, and started going down..not what we had thought..and back up again. We reached some unexpected forks in the road and were confident we were on the right track. Finally, we made it to the top of a ridge and got an amazing view! We stopped for 15 minutes to do some yoga and continued on and slowly but surely it started to grow dark. We looked at the map and realized it had taken us a lot longer than expected and that we were only halfway to our hostel! Thank goodness we all had flashlights and as dusk fell, we trudged on..up and around and down and up again and back down again and up. The view through this path would have been phenomenal but unfortunately we didn't get to see all of it as it grew darker and darker. Six hours (double the time we had budgeted) later, we hitched a ride on the main road back to our hostel and cold, hungry, and exhausted sat in the lounge to share the story of our crazy day with the rest of our group.

The rest of my time in Zhangjiajie was fantastic! The park has sub-tropical foliage and is home to tons of wild monkeys. Some of which we got extremely close to and we fed a few some orange and watched as they peeled and ate it.. absolutely wicked to see! There are so many great spots around the park to stop at and enjoy the beautiful view and Sam, who is a photographer got some gorgeous shots. You should check out his website and look at them (TuckMeister Photography) On Sunday afternoon, we headed back down the hill one last time which was absolutely killer as the amount of hiking I did throughout the weekend had started to take it's toll on my body and we took the bus back to the train station. We couldn't get seats on the train, as it was full, so we got standing tickets and sat on the ground in between two of the carriages for the five hours home. I now know what leg cramps are truly like..all those cheer clinics throughout the years feel like a cake walk now! I was struggling to walk the first couple days back at work but it was all worth it!

Another great adventure in China at one of the most beautiful national parks in the country!

NOW IT'S PERSONAL-CHERYL'S STORY

A few of my favourite students from class 8 grade 5

The past couple of weeks, many of my students have been preparing for an English Talent Competition being put on in Changsha. For the competition, the students must perform a talent related to English-think speech, story, skit, etc. Being a foreign teacher, I was asked to come and watch a few of my classes "audition" to be chosen as one of few students from Tian Hua to represent our school in the city wide version of the event. I was very pleased to be invited to view class 8 grade 5's talent audition, as this class is probably my favourite of all the classes I teach. Part of the reason I love this class so much is because of two young girls in the class- Amy and Cheryl. I met Amy and Cheryl the day I went on the class trip to the zoo. Both of them, usually a bit reserved during lessons were very eager to hang out with me all day and they both shared that they had spent some time overseas going to school (Amy spent 1 year in Australia and Cheryl 2 in the United States). Because of this, these girls have a very high English level in comparison to the other students and I am able to have a bit more of a personal relationship with them. Of course, both girls would be auditioning for the Talent Competition and Cheryl bravely chose to get up in front of the class first. I had already seen a few other classes do the same thing and many had been filled with boring impersonal speeches "My name is .....  I am ...years old there are ... people in my family" - you get the point. When Cheryl got up, I just knew hers would be different and was I sure right!

Cheryl decided to talk about her experience living overseas. She started by saying how her mother had gotten a job in America and that her family decided to move there to be together. Cheryl said how nervous she was to go to school in the US. "My English wasn't very good so I was scared. Would I understand what the teacher was saying? Would I be able to make friends? Would there be any other Chinese kids?" She went for her first day of school and sure enough, Cheryl was discouraged to find out that she couldn't really understand what the teacher was saying. She said it was extremely intimidating. Since Cheryl had no choice but to figure things out, her parents enrolled her in an afterschool ESL program and Cheryl told us about the many hours she would spend after school with her ESL teacher practicing and learning English and working very hard. It didn't take long, and Cheryl's English had improved and she was able to understand the teacher and she was able to communicate with her classmates. "I just want to share with my classmates that if you work hard at something and don't give up, you will succeed. I studied very hard and now my English is very good and I am so happy that I did. It was very hard but I didn't give up, I just kept practicing."

Cheryl's words gave me butterflies in my stomach. How many times back home had I come across people who were just like her. Living in a foreign country, trying to adapt and trying to learn English. I thought about how sometimes it took a bit of patience to communicate with these people but how I knew they were making an honest and sincere effort to get their point across. Whether these people be workers at McDonalds, cooks at the Tower, fuel attendants at the gas station, or just someone asking for help in the grocery store..these people were just like Cheryl. How many times have people complained about these people not having the best english? How many times have we heard people complain.."They got my frickin order wrong! They need to learn English or get the f*** out of Canada!" "All these people living in Canada not knowing English are annoying, learn English!" But have we ever considered how difficult it can be for these people sometimes?

Now when I see people constantly being ignorant and complaining about this, I just think, those people that they are complaining about, lipping off, or being outright rude and excluding towards; those are my students, that's Cheryl. Cheryl, the girl that I see every Thursday morning, the girl who works so hard to learn English in school, the girl who moved to America and was thrown into the mix and worked so hard to improve her English skills, the girl standing in front of me encouraging her classmates to persevere and that hard work pays off.

What Cheryl gave me that day, I can't thank her enough for. She didn't just share her experience with me, one that we now talk about nearly every time I see her (it is very interesting to see what she thinks of the Chinese school system vs. the American), but she gave me motivation to keep doing my job to the best of my ability. Some days working as an English teacher in China can be really tough, but seeing kids like Cheryl reminds me why I love my job. I was blessed to grow up in Canada and have English, the most widely understood language in the world, as my first language. Living in China and not being fluent in Chinese, I can really relate to what it's like for someone new to Canada, it can be very frustrating sometimes and I am always so grateful when locals will take the time to speak slow to me and be patient with my broken Chinese. If I can help my students to become more fluent in English and give them the confidence to keep practicing, then I will truly feel like I have done something. Cheryl is just one of many great hardworking students I teach everyday and by hearing her story,  I really hope that it can inspire not only me but all of you guys back home to be patient, understanding, and kind to the people who are part of your daily lives that are learning English as a second language.

I should have never went zip-lining - Inner Mongolia Edition

I am usually not one for organized tour trips. I find they can be a huge let down. You don't always get to see everything because you spent so much time waiting on other people. Not to mention I like to do what I want to do when I want to do it. If I'm hungry I want to eat and it better be food that I want and being paraded around like cattle in a foreign country just isn't my definition of fun. During Golden week, IES Global ( the company that I work with in China) organized a trip to Inner Mongolia. I wasn't too keen on being toured around on a bus, but since it was a way to see a lot of people I met and became so close with in Beijing I was easily convinced to join in on the trip, with the impression that the tour wouldn't be so touristy and that we would have a lot of fun. Well, let's just say I learnt a lesson and I, Amber Dukart swear to never take a guided tour on a bus ever again! If it wasn't for being with some of the most awesome people on the face of the planet I probably would have came home in a body bag. Problem One: Our tour guide was a complete retard. He was under the impression that we were all idiots and were visiting China with a lot of cash in our pockets to burn Problem Two: I had eaten something our first night which gave me food poisoning so I spent the entire trip with extremely bad travellers sickness (aka very bad diarrhea) Problem Three: it was FREEZING cold in Inner Mongolia and I hadn't brought enough warm clothes because I was told a sweater would do Problem Four: a tour bus on roads in China seems to always take longer than you could possibly imagine (the typically 3 hour bus ride from Batou to Hohhot took us 8 hours!)

Let's put these facts all together. I am on a bus for 8 hours listening to an extremely annoying tour guide freezing my ass off and desperately needing to use the toilet...yeah Inner Mongolia, fantastic place!

Ok, so it really wasn't that bad..the trip had a lot of positive points which ultimately made it worth it but I learnt my lesson and don't see myself on a guided tour involving a bus for a very long time, not until I'm old and wear depends.

It was such a riot being reunited with everyone and we made were able to have so much fun just laughing at how ridiculous the whole ordeal was. The first stop of the tour was the grasslands. We went horseback riding through the grasslands which was pretty cool but keep in mind I was on the back of a horse in the middle of nowhere for 3 hours with diarrhea. I hope you are laughing at me right now because I know I'm laughing at myself. One of the other highlights of Inner Mongolia was the day we spent on the dessert. We had such a great time there! Camel riding, quading, riding in dune buggies and sliding down a massive sand dune on a board (basically tobogganing with sand instead of snow) were all wicked fun! Once again, I have some great photos to share but due to shitty internet, I can't post. (seriously large sad face). Another memorable place during our trip was the Buddhist temple in Hohhot.  At first glance, there wasn't anything overtly special about this temple, it was just your average Chinese Buddhist temple. But after spending a few minutes inside we found it to be the best one we have been in thus far! The temples we visited in Beijing were extremely crowded with people and you couldn't really appreciate it. But here in Hohhot, there were very few tourists and you could really get a sense of peacefulness. We definitely lucked out as well because while we were there all of the monks that were living in the temple had their daily gathering and did a prayer ceremony. Very cool to witness especially since the temple in Beijing didn't really have many monks hanging about.

Inner Mongolia is a very beautiful area of China and one that most people don't make it to when they come to visit. I think it's overlooked by most because of it's remote location in comparison to the rest of China and it is a trip I will never forget (I think more of because of the circumstances that made it such a hilarious trip rather than the trip itself) I am glad I went even if it meant being on a tour bus with a shitty tour guide and diarrhea. At least I learnt my lesson, NEVER go on a tour bus trip again!

A VISIT TO 西安 (Xi'an)

The first week of October here in China is known as Golden Week. During this time of year, the Chinese celebrate 中秋街 which is  Mid-Autumn Festival or Full Moon Festival in English. This is basically their version of Thanksgiving in some shape or form as it is a time for Chinese families to get together and eat moon cakes (cakes with a usually sweet filling in them that are either something you love or hate). In honour of this special holiday, the Chinese are given a week holidays. I decided to make the most of my time off and check off a few places on my list of things to do in China that seems to be getting longer and longer as I discover even more beautiful places to visit. First stop on my Golden Week adventures was to the beautiful city of Xi'an.

Xi'an is absolutely beautiful and if you ever get the chance to visit China, Xi'an better be at the top of your list. Screw Beijing or Shanghai, Xi'an is the real deal when it comes to mainland China. Most people know Xi'an to be the home of the Terra-cotta Army, one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in the world. I remember learning about it in my Arky1000 textbook and let me tell you it's pretty cool in real life. Xi'an has much more to offer the eager traveller than just the Teracotta Army though. This city, just like nearly everywhere else in China has a rich cultural history and is also rapidly expanding and growing with new skyscrapers going up left right and center. What makes this place stand out from the rest though is the way they have made an effort to keep the old Chinese touches. Xi'an is one of few cities that still has it's city walls standing. Modern life sometimes takes over in China. For instance, the city walls of Beijing were taken down in order to construct the subway system (seems crazy I know but hey, This is China!) Not only is the city wall still up in tact, but the old drum and bell tower are still up and standing and the city has been built around these old monuments. Old style Chinese character is still used in buildings and the city, although large and busy has a very peaceful and serene feel to it. It took five minutes of standing outside the hostel on our first day there to feel the peacefulness of this place and realize that I absolutely loved it. Walking down the streets of Xi'an gave me a really great feeling. even though it is a massive city, it felt so peaceful. In Changsha, you are constantly hearing the honking of horns but in Xi'an it was oddly quiet even though it was bustling full of people visiting for the holidays. My favourite place in Xi'an was the city walls. Our second morning there, we went up top to check it out. We ended up renting bikes and biking around the entire circumference of the wall. It was so exhilarating! Although the wall was a bit rough and bumpy for biking, the view of the city was stellar! A city composed to modern and ancient and although the hustle and bustle of the city hadn't stopped, there was a sense of peace up on the wall. It was like being a bird. You could see everything going on but there was a separation between you and the rest of the city. It was a great morning to peacefully cycle the wall, take in the city, and collect my thoughts.

Another fantastic thing about Xi'an is the Muslim Quarter. Xi'an lies near the end of the Silk Road, so it is very culturally diverse which makes it even cooler! There is a section of the city known as the Muslim Quarter where the Chinese Muslims reside and let me tell you, if you come to Xi'an, you can't miss out on this place and you better come with a hungry stomach! Weaving through narrow old Hutong style streets, there are many Muslims selling all kinds of delicious street foods, hand crafts, tea, and fruit. Some of our groups favourites to snatch up to eat on the streets of the Muslim Quarter were 

羊肉泡馍 (yangrou paomo- a mutton and bread soup), pumpkin flavoured yuebing (moon cake), noodles with a cold sesame type sauce and these pancakes that were filled with meat and spices (tai hao che- delicious!). The last day in Xi'an we went back to the Muslim quarter and tried out a little restaurant on one of the less popular side streets and had some deicious and spicy dumplings and some fantastic noodles with tons of vegetables. My stomach really loved the Muslim Quarter and I would definitely say it was some of the best food I have eaten in China.

Everything during our trip in Xi'an went quite smoothly and you might think considering this is China, that's too good to be true right? Well you are totally right. We had a little bit a of a disappointment in Xi'an that makes a hilarious China story. Our last day in Xi'an, we decided to join some Chinese friends we met on a trip out HuaShan (one of the most famous mountains in China and for good reason..although I really wouldn't know but we will get to that!) We got some last minute train tickets to Huashan and were planning on leaving in the afternoon to make the two hour train journey there where we would hike up the mountain, spend the night and watch the sunrise then come back down and catch our train back to Xi'an in order to make out flight to Hohhot that we couldn't miss. We had it all worked out and had just enough time to be able to sneak this last minute day trip in. Well we get on the train and make it the two hours to Huashan, get off the train as the sun is setting and hop in a black taxi and head towards the gates to the mountain park. Thank god we were with some Chinese friends or we would have been royally screwed. They asked the driver the details of the park and if we would have enough time to get up there and back down. Well his response was not exactly what we wanted to hear. "Are you crazy! It's Mid-Autumn Festival there are 10,000 people on that mountain! There is a four hour line to get on the gondola up and if you want to climb up it, it will take you 6 hours (normally only about 2)" Well we obviously couldn't do it, there was no way in hell we would get up there and back down and still make our flight the next day. We just wasted two hours on the train plus the time in Huashan and didn't see a thing. Sam and our Chinese friends were able to go up the mountain because they didn't have a flight to catch the next day so we bid them farewell and good luck with tackling all the people and we hopped in a taxi and headed back for the train station. In the taxi, the four of us were laughing hysterically at the day we just had. It was dark and we didn't even get to see the mountain and being so tired we thankfully were able to laugh it off. It was also pretty funny how there was 10,000 people on a mountain. That's just insane. Even on the busiest ski hill in Canada, there would never be that many people! I'm sitting here at my desk laughing out loud at this but unfortunately it's so hard to write it in a way to make you guys find it was funny as we did. We got back to the train station and had about an hour to kill in this dinky ass town before the next train went to Xi'an, so we grabbed a few beers and sat on the steps outside of a very old run down hotel/shop and my friend Miguel pulled out his guitar and starting playing as I sang along. Picture this, four foreigners sitting on the steps of this run down joint, beer in hand with backpacks and a guitar singing English. We gathered quite the crowd and we had a few Chinese people who came and sat to listen to us, including a policeman. I wish I had photo evidence of this moment as even I wish to see what it must have looked like, drinking beer and attempting to make conversation with a uniformed Chinese police man..another example of the insanity of China. 

All in all, Xi'an was an amazing trip and I would go back in a heartbeat and actually get to see and climb Huashan (on a side note, Sam said it took him 7 hours to get up the mountain and the steps were packed with people and it was literally a line up the hill moving slowly step by step and another 6 to get back down). We made the most of the time we had and ended up coming home with one of my favourite China stories so far. I would love to post some photos but Chinese internet is very dodgy and they unfortunately just won't upload..I will keep trying though!