The Christmas Wrap-up Post

We love you all and hope you had a great Christmas day! Click on the album to see some pics from our Christmas celebration here:

A Chinese Christmas

Two Down, Four to Go

We hosted our first two Christmas parties on Friday and Saturday nights. Both parties were a lot of fun for us and the students. Since each party had 40 students, we had planned to party in a classroom. However, on Saturday, the teaching building was closed for an exam, so all 40 people squeezed into our house! We have some pictures at an online Web album. Click on the picture to see more photos.

2008 Christmas Parties (part 1)

Christmas is Upon Us...

We can hardly believe that Christmas is next week! We've managed to significantly cut the number of Christmas parties we will be hosting this year. We are down to six... a huge improvement over last year's marathon run of 13 parties! The first party will be tomorrow afternoon, so I've been busy getting ready... baking cookies, wrapping gifts for games and trying to pull together a game plan. Keep us in mind as we party away!

Speaking of Christmas, imagine our surprise earlier this week when we walked outside to find the streets of our university lined with Christmas trees! It feels quite festive, and this week, we've been talking about Christmas in my classes, and I even taught my freshmen students some songs. Pretty impressive singing if you ask me!


By the way, thanks to the family for sending the sprinkles. They made our Christmas cookies look especially seasonal! Our students will love it!

Tis the Season

Yesterday, we attended a Seasonal variety show that some of our good friends organized and performed in. It was a really great time, even if we couldn't understand the huge majority of songs or skits! Here are a couple of video clips from some of the performances... Sorry, no sound.

Bad Manners

Last night as we ate dinner in a restaurant on campus, Matt hunched over and actually sucked some noodles directly off the side of his bowl. And it occurred to me... We've picked up some pretty bad habits over here.

It's not that these things are rude in China--they're completely normal; but in America, I'm pretty sure our mothers would be appalled. For example...

- We not only suck noodles off the side of bowls; we also slurp our soup.
- There are even times when we don't use spoons with our soup at all; we just pick up the bowl and drink away.
- When we eat fish or chicken with bones in it, we just spit the bones out onto the table.
- While waiting in line, we have no problem crowding the person in front of us so that no one else can get in.
- We also have no problem elbowing those overly persistent people who still try to cut in front of us.
- And a favorite pastime is arguing with a shop owner that her products are not only way over-priced, but also not great quality. (This is not rude here... It's just how people shop.)

We've had a good weekend but a busy one! It definitely feels like December, as it is getting busier and busier around here. On Saturday, Matt hung out with some guys in the morning and another guy in the afternoon. And on Saturday evening, I had some girls over to teach me how to knit. We even managed to make it to the post office in all the craziness to send off Christmas gifts to our families. (The post office is, of course, always an ordeal; this trip, we had to finish wrapping our gifts in the post office line after the workers had approved all our gifts! To say the least, we caused a bit of a scene.) And this afternoon, we have a group of my students coming over at 4pm to hang out, as well. It's been a fun couple of days. We've been reminded again how great it is to live on the same campus as our students! Looking back at last year, we could never have had so many opportunities for students just to drop in. We are very thankful.

Food Fest!

Last week, our school hosted a snack food festival, where vendors from across China came to sell snack foods from their province. Those three days amounted to some great, cheap dinners! Here are some pics of some of the treats.

We didn't actually try the grilled squid, but all the other foods are things we ate. The photo directly below is sticky rice cooked in bamboo; I liked it... Matt says it is the worst thing he has ever eaten in China.

Last Saturday, I invited some girls over from my old school to help decorate the Christmas tree. We had a lot of fun, along with some great talks.


After the tree, we made Christmas cookies!

Thanksgiving

We had a two-day celebration this year, as Thursdays are a little tough to do the whole Thanksgiving spread after a full-day of work... especially when you don't have the 4-day weekend. So, on Thursday, I did some shopping and cooking, but for dinner Matt and I headed over to the Korean restaurant. I know, I know... It sounds terrible, but it was actually a great time for the two of us just to enjoy some low-key time with each other. Then, on Friday, we had a more traditional meal (aside from the KFC, which Matt believes could overtake the traditional turkey long-term) with sweet potato casserole, stuffing, pies, and lots more.

We are reminded at this time of all that we have to be thankful. On Friday, some of our good Chinese friends came over for a visit before the big dinner, and we really just enjoyed the time together talking, laughing, and introducing them to cranberries! Also, on Friday, we got a package from some friends (who provided the cranberries, by the way), and were reminded of the people back home who never forget us. And, of course, our families who always do so much by just being themselves. We love you all and wish a (belated) Happy Thanksgiving!

Click on the photo below to see more pictures at our Thanksgiving photo album:

Thanksgiving

Almost the Holidays...

We are excited about Thanksgiving this week and the beginning of the Christmas season. We will again host a number of Christmas parties this year; although, probably not quite as many as last year!

We are continuing to enjoy life at our new school. The students are really great, and we've been able to make lots of new friends here. We've decided that freshmen students are our favorite; they are so excited about hanging out and learning English and haven't gotten lazy yet!

Matt's back is feeling much, much better after the cortisone shot, and he is back into the swing of things. For the past couple of days, he has had no pain or discomfort at all! He feels like a new man and is loving being able to study, hang out with students, and even sit on the sofa more easily again. Thanks to everyone for keeping him in your thoughts recently.

And on a side note.. As I was making some bacon for breakfast this morning, I noticed this funny slogan:

Painting the Trees

Despite the fact that one of my students told me it was to keep the trees warm during winter, the Chinese paint the trunks of all the trees to keep bugs away. Clever, just not so attractive.

A few weeks ago, there was a man selling puppies outside the front gate of our school. They were unbelievably cute and nearly irresistible; however, for practicality sake, we talked ourselves out of buying one. One of our good friends who is a student at our old school was suckered into it, though. I, for one, am grateful, because when he comes to visit, I get my puppy fix.

 

Her name is JinJin, which means "quiet;" apparently, she only lived up to this name until about her second day with our friend. It can be certain that she is no longer quiet and is now all-puppy. This picture is shortly after she captured my tennis shoe and dragged it under our sofa.

Thanks!

Thanks to our families for sending some great packages last week! We were excited to open the boxes and find some of our favorites... Sweet & Low, Hershey's Dark Chocolate, Mac & Cheese, and the all-time great movie "A Charlie Brown Christmas"! Last night, after we returned from Shanghai, I was cleaning up the living room and getting rid of the boxes when I found an extra treat inside...

You may remember that when we received our absentee ballot, we (well, I) missed the classic "I Voted" stickers. So, imagine my surprise last night when I saw two of the stickers inside our box! My voting experience is now complete.

Back from Shanghai

As you are probably aware from previous posts and/or emails, I have been experiencing back pain for a while. These pains substantially increased during the last month, causing me to frequently ask a question I had hoped that I would never need answered: "How good is medical care in China?" The answer, for those fortunate to live in the rich Eastern part of the country and able to afford quality care, is not bad.
Today Amy and I returned from Shanghai, where I visited an International medical clinic on Friday. Saturday morning I was able to receive a cortisone injection in the small of my back, and I have already experienced marked improvement. Traveling back to the city one day after the procedure was a little difficult, but I plan to spend the next couple days laying around the apartment in the hopes that inactivity maximizes the effectiveness of the injection. Thank you for thinking of me and for your support and concern. Matt

Just an Update

While the acupuncture definitely helped some, it didn't do the trick. So, earlier this week, Matt saw a doctor and had an MRI scan at a local hospital. As expected, this is the same problem he has faced in the past.

Tomorrow we will travel to an international hospital in Shanghai for him to get a cortisone injection. We were very thankful this morning to hear from our insurance company that they will pay for any costs above our deductible for this week's medical expenses. Please keep us in your thoughts, as we are hopeful this shot will alleviate the pain.

It was a busy weekend of parties and get-togethers. On Friday, one of Matt's classes from last year called to invite us to their "English Party". It was great to see them again and a good chance to catch up with some friends. We hope to stay in closer touch with some of them.

And then, on Sunday afternoon, we headed into downtown to catch up with some more old friends at a park in the city. It had stopped raining the day before and was a beautiful and cold late-autumn day.

10 Days & Nights

Things we have learned in this long period of endless rain:

- It's not much fun riding bikes in the rain.

- Chinese students are very kind to offer umbrellas to foreigners who are standing in the street because the pedal broke off their bike.

- Our balcony floods after about five days.

- Our clothes dryer takes about 400 minutes to dry a load of towels, which is why we prefer to use the clothes line when it is not raining.

- And, finally, if the sewer is overflowing, stay far, far away.

Waffles

Waffles in China...And as street food, no less!

We don't have a ton of street vendors here like some Chinese cities. However, in the evening when students are out and about, 2 or 3 guys will often set up their carts at our school gate. Usually, they sell meat on a stick, popcorn, or chestnuts. All well and good, but nothing to exciting.

So, imagine our surprise to see a guy with a waffle iron last night! Student were pretty impressed, too; he was definitely drawing a crowd. To say the least, we totally jumped on the opportunity!


(Only the first video is ours; the other videos that pop up after it finishes belong to other people on YouTube.)

The waffles may look a bit different, but the taste is surprisingly similar! Take them home, add a little syrup, and voila!

Acupuncture

Matt has had on and off back problems for about 13 years, since a high school football injury. The problem doesn't flare up often, but this past month, it has. It began with only slight pains here and there after a lot of walking or playing soccer, but last week, things got worse. On Monday and Tuesday nights, he couldn't sleep because of the pain, and walking for any distance was really out of the question. One of Amy's students helped us out at the pharmacy to get some anti-inflammatory medicine (his problem is a herniated disc). He began taking them immediately but also felt something more was needed. He considered a Cortisone shot; but after hearing of a friend who had spinal fluid leakage, he decided he would rather not get a shot near the spinal cord in China.

So, he figured... When in China, do as the Chinese do. There is an American doctor in our city who uses acupuncture to release muscle tension. So, on Thursday, we headed into the city to meet with him. He has a science background and doesn't necessarily believe in the "chi" and "flow of energy" that the Chinese claim is the key to acupuncture. But from a medical perspective, he says it does work by stimulating the nervous system and causing the muscles to relax.

Matt had acupuncture that day. He says there was no pain when the needles went into his back, but it was a little tender as the doctor moved the needles around to manipulate the sore muscles. In the end, he did feel a little better after. He has been able to sleep since then and isn't nearly as tight as he was. He returned yesterday for another treatment and will probably return twice more, as well.

Thank you all for keeping him in your thoughts this week. We are fairly hopeful that this treatment; the meds and; of course, a special touch from above will do the trick.

Factory Girls

There is a new book recently published in the States called "Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China." I've not read the book yet, but it's about the increasing popularity to leave home and move to a city where you can get a better job in a factory. By better, this means a job in which you sometimes work from 6am until 9pm, seven days a week to make a little bit of money to send home to your family in the villages.

On Saturday, I had lunch with a girl who is a freshman English major. She comes from a small village in one of the poorest provinces in China. When she was a child, her parents had a farm where they grew corn and wheat, but six years ago her father died in a car accident. After a couple of years trying to make it, they realized they did not have enough money with the father gone. So, the two younger siblings (the parents had disobeyed the one-child law in China because the two older children were girls and sons are favored) went to work in factories, which meant leaving home at the young ages of 13 and 14. My student is the oldest child and since she was closest to getting to college, she continued to work towards that goal. When she graduates, she will hold the greatest responsibility of supporting her family.

It is a sad story, but not an entirely uncommon one. Please keep families like these in your thoughts as they try to make ends meet in an increasingly wealthy China.

Voting

We got our absentee ballots in the mail yesterday. All of our mail goes to the Foreign Affairs Office on campus, then they call us to come pick it up. When I dropped by late yesterday afternoon, our officer said, "Wow, your government does a really good job to make sure everyone gets to vote." He's right; they do. What a cool place.

We are very excited to fill out our ballots and get them back to the post office today. I am just sad that the Absentee Ballots do not come with "I voted" stickers!

Christmas Prep Already?

As part of my English class this year, I am putting together a Website about the Christmas holiday; it will be a great way for me to get a lot of good information to students.

As part of the lessons, we are going to talk about Christmas as it is celebrated around the world. Unfortunately, most Chinese believe that Christmas is an American holiday that is all about getting gifts. I want to educate them on the meaning of Christmas, as well as the fact that Christmas in an international celebration.

So, if you or someone you know has lived in another country or has seen Christmas celebrations around the world firsthand, I would love to hear about your traditions. And if you have pictures, send those, too! You can email them to dunnsinasia@gmail.com.

The Performer

I have seen little of Amy this past week, as she spent most of the past week preparing for a performance honoring the 30th anniversary of the university's founding. Amy's involvement began with a simple phone call asking her to take part in the festivities, but it mushroomed into a massive undertaking with makeup and hairstyle "artists", rehearsals, and celebrity school alumni. Chinese variety shows have to be seen to be believed, suffice it to say, this performance had nine (9!!!) hosts, a traditional martial arts dance that devolved into a break dance routine, and a man wearing what appear to be gold priestly vestments from the disco era. Not really my scene, as you can probably imagine.

Amy is here performing a song called "Molihua" or Jasmine, about how her desire to pick a jasmine flower is outweighed by her fear of having people laugh at her. It actually is a very pretty song, though English translations certainly do not do it justice. That being said, she did a great job. In addition to the video, we have also linked to a collection of photos from the performance.



To see pictures of the week, click: http://picasaweb.google.com/shortames/MoLiHua02#.

Fun & Games

Finally, Amy is getting to meet her freshmen students this week. On day one, we played a game identifying body parts in English. They were pretty good, as you can see by the pictures... Except that the mouth of this guy on the left is labeled as "mouse"!

They are fun students, and we're excited to get to know them better.

We took off to Shanghai yesterday to visit our friend Bill, who works there after graduating from the university where we taught last year. It was great to see him again and catch up on life. He showed us around Shanghai and Pudong, and we got to meet his friend Susan. After sightseeing Bill wanted to treat us to a cup of coffee.

At the coffee shop, we drank, we talked, then we left--unfortunately, without Matt's bag. Matt rushed back when he noticed it was gone, but the bag was nowhere to be found. After letting the staff know and counting it as a loss, we had the idea of calling his cell phone, since it was in the bag. To our complete surprise, someone answered! It was the lady at a customer service counter downstairs in the shopping mall. Apparently, someone stole the bag, took it downstairs, rummaged through it and left it near a restroom after deciding he didn't need two elementary-level Chinese textbooks and a cheap cell phone. To say the least, we were shocked and thrilled. The two mall employees who found the bag were at the counter when we came to pick it up and asked us to write a letter of praise for their honesty. We were more than happy to do so and hope they get huge raises!

Not sure what this sign is about... We went to the Bund, and there was definitely no seagull there. :-)

It's a holiday week here in China, so it's been a little quieter than usual. Not completely silent, though. Amy started meeting with her tutor this week and is excited about learning a little more Chinese, although keeping up with Matt is pretty much a pipe dream. And Matt took a guys' trip to a nearby canal town with some good friends.

Key Selling Points for My Bike Poncho

Watch Out, Hollywood!

One of Matt's classmates is a Russian actor living in China and making movies here. Apparently, foreigners can do fairly well here with this sort of thing--especially with a little Chinese language. In any case, yesterday in class, he offered Matt the opportunity be in a movie with him. (To the Chinese, Matt does have the classic American look with his height and blue eyes; a lot of them think he looks like Michael Scofield in Prison Break... must be the hair.) They needed an extra foreigner to play a military leader in a movie set in Shanghai before the war. Shooting would have only been one day, and Matt wouldn't have had a speaking part but would have gotten paid for it. He turned it down, not knowing the plot of the movie and not wanting to feed into any anti-American sentiment. Even so, pretty exciting to be asked! Maybe next time.

Not Likely to Be Seen in Western Universities...

At Chinese universities, freshmen students arrive a couple of weeks later than the upperclassmen. Before ever taking their first class or even buying their first textbook, they are issued military uniforms. All university freshmen are required to take part in a week-long military training. Basically, this entails a lot of parading around, shouting and saluting. No guns, no basic training drills. Even so, it's an interesting thing to see. Apparently, all citizens age 18-22 are bound to serve up to 2 years for their country, but because of the vast amounts of peasant young men in that age group willing to volunteer, it's not really enforced to its fullest. This week-long training is supposed to invoke an awareness and basic knowledge of national pride and defense.

Cooking Lessons

I had some of my favorite students over tonight to catch up. They insisted on teaching me how to make Chinese dumplings and egg/tomato soup. In return, I taught them how to make sugar cookies. A good time was had by all, and yes, when we return to America next time, I will finally be capable of making some Chinese food!

Making dumplings:
Doing sugar cookies (they were very excited about this!):

Zzzzz...

Between catching up with old friends and making new ones, this studying and homework stuff is exhausting for folks in the 30-and-over crowd.

Bobbing for Apples

We had some friends over last night to hang out and play some games... one of which was bobbing for apples. Very funny, especially for our Chinese friends who had never seen such a thing and many of whom are afraid of water.

No More Exotic Flavor

Since I do only have a couple of classes until October 6, I have had some time to hang out with friends and also to get some things done in the apartment. When we first moved in, I posted some pictures of the new place, but I said that the living room needed some definite work.

I wish I had some before and after pictures... Imagine, if you will, a three-toned couch (black, white and red). The red cushions were filthy, faded, and had the words "Exotic Flavor" imprinted on them. Trust me, the reality is even worse than the image in your mind. That is what we began with... We feel much more at home now that I have had time to go to the fabric market and get seat cushions made to replace the red. (The green couch came with us from the old place.)

Back in the Swing of Things...

We're finding our way around our new community pretty well now--frequenting the veggie and fruit markets, figuring out the less-crowded streets for biking, and scoping out the milk tea options. We love living out here; it is so nice having a two-minute walk to class for me and a 10-minute ride to school for Matt. And we like the smaller town feel, as opposed to the city. There's less craziness, and the local people are even nicer! The older folks selling goods at the veggie market are super friendly and fun to practice Chinese with.

My students (at least the 40 I've met so far) are really great this year. Good English and a lot of fun. We're thinking of hosting a Mid-Autumn Festival party for them at our place next Saturday. We'd probably do a little of their culture and a little of ours... bobbing for apples (if we can find a tub big enough), baking cookies, etc. It'd be a great way to get to know some of them better, begin forming relationships, and even let them practice their English some.

Learning Chinese

While Amy has been reveling in her one-day workweek (all but two of her classes are comprised of freshman, who do not begin classes until October), I have completed my first week of classes. I receive twenty hours of instruction a week in Listening, Intensive Reading, Oral Chinese, and Characters. Most of this week has been spent repeating the various sounds of the language and practicing tones. For those of you who do not know, Chinese has several tones that change the meaning of a word depending on the tone used. For example, the word ma can mean horse, mother, linen among other alternate meanings depending upon the tone used. It is a tricky business. But I do enjoy the experience-my teachers are great, and my class resembles the UN General Assembly, with American, German, Russian, Swiss and Korean students.

My favorite class is Chinese characters. While the class's application may be more limited than my speaking and listening classes, I figure that a working knowledge of characters relating to food will at least reduce the likelihood of further culinary suprises while eating out. In addition, I find character writing to be extremely relaxing (it also happens to be an area of study where I can measure my progress a little more tangibly). There is one problem--Chinese characters were designed to be written by right-handers, and poor handwriting is deemed to be a sign of a morally deficient character.

The character above is wo, and means "I" or "me." Seems awfully complicated for such a common word, doesn't it? Believe it or not, there is a system. Strokes are written from left to right, top to bottom, with specifically prescribed number and order of strokes. In the absence of an alphabet, characters are organized in dictionaries by the number and types of strokes used in making the characters. Presently, I estimate that I can read approximately 100-120 characters, allowing me to read the average newspaper after I have acquired mastery another 2900. As you can see, there is some work to be done.

Amy will shortly be able to resume her normal posting when her life slows down a bit. Hehe.

Back in China

We had a great time at home this summer with our families. We spent the majority of our time eating, followed closely by just hanging out. Over the summer, we also became first-time aunt and uncle to our sweet nephew Levi! We are happy to be back and were excited to share our flight over with the very friendly and excited Brazilian paralympic team. We were sitting next to the soccer guys; best of luck to our friend Marco and the rest of their team!

We made it back to our apartment around 11 pm last night; and after about 3 hours of sleep, Matt headed off to his first day as a student in China. I will begin teaching classes on Wednesday--six freshmen classes and two sophomore classes. My jet-lagged brain is very happy that my freshmen have military training for the first month and do not begin classes until October.

A New Look

We decided it was time for a new look on the blog. And although it is a bit more girly than Matt would prefer, he figures that's the disadvantage of his wife being the slightly more tech-savvy one! We're busy enjoying time with family and watching the Olympics, but we'll be back soon updating the blog again.

3 am

Well, we've made it as far as Canada on our journey home for the summer. It's 3 am, and I am wide awake with jet lag. The good news is that in 7 hours, we'll be meeting up with our families at the airport!

On our way here, we flew out of Beijing, which is getting all ready for the Olympics. It's safe to say, though, that the city's strategy for cleaning the air pollution isn't working yet. Having lived in China for the past year, we had forgotten what smog-free air was until we landed in Toronto this evening. What a pretty sight...

We'll probably not be updating the blog for a while, since we'll be busy visiting in the States until the end of August. Be back then!

A Little Side Trip

This week we went to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain). It's only about a 3-hour bus ride, and is thought to be the most beautiful mountain in China. The mountain is only about 6,200 feet, but don't let this deceive you. It's many sharp peaks make it a tough climb. Our plan was to go up the easier (and less steep) eastern route (5 miles), have lunch at the summit, then come down the tougher and more beautiful western side (9 miles). This was our plan, and it was going beautifully until somewhere between getting on the Western trail and getting to the bottom, we made a wrong turn.

This turn took us down into the canyon formed between the many peaks--since we were going down, we figured we were in the right place... until the path started going up again. And then it went up some more. Our second mistake was following some Chinese tourists who seemed to know their way, leading us to take a second wrong turn and ending up back at same peak of the mountain that we had left 4 1/2 hours earlier.

We were exhausted, frustrated, filthy and no longer enjoying the hiking. Without enough time or energy to hike back down on a path actually leading to the bottom, we decided to take the cable car, only to find out it quit running at 5pm.

So, we were stuck. Many tourists plan to spend the night on top of the mountain to watch the sunset and sunrise; but we hadn't wanted to stay overnight, so we hadn't booked a room. After three tries, Matt found us a place to sleep. This morning, everything seemed a bit better, and we did see the 5am sunrise; after which, we immediately began walking down the same way we had come up the first time, determined to get off the mountain and be done with the whole thing.

We estimate we walked approximately 17 miles up and down uneven stairs, although our legs feel as if could have easily have been 30 miles. Things definitely didn't go as planned, but the views were amazing--definitely the most dramatic mountain peaks we've ever seen. And, hey, we have a good story out of it--I'm sure we'll find it all funny when the pain in our calf muscles wears off.

The Other Face of China

This past week, I (Amy) traveled to a county in the southwest part of our province to visit a student's hometown. This is a part of China that will never be seen by Olympic tourists, as the "villages" near Beijing and other big cities have been tweaked to make them more "accessible" for tourists.

To give you some background about the rurality of where I went: we took a 5 1/2 hour train from Hangzhou to Lishui; then we took an additional 2 buses for 2 hours to get to the villages. The county is called Jingning and is an area populated largely by the She minority group. There are numerous villages throughout the mountains.

I was looking forward to the natural beauty and mountainous scenery, and I was not disappointed at all. The landscape is similar to the Smokies, with the addition of bamboo trees. The best part was that this was more untouched and less touristy. It was amazingly refreshing.

I was also looking forward to seeing the "real China." Many of the people in China do not live in cities like Shanghai, Beijing or Hangzhou, but rather live in small towns and villages. I wanted to see this side of life. I loved the people in the villages; it's a world where everyone knows everyone, people chat with neighbors outside after supper, kids play in the street in the middle of the village, and life is actually lived instead of rushing from place to place. However, to say the least, being there threw me into a bit of culture shock. Having lived in Hangzhou, one of the wealthiest cities in China, I was not prepared for the poverty and backwardness that is still the norm in the country. The house where I stayed was much poorer than I had anticipated, with concrete floors and walls, no running water, a communal outhouse, giant spiders and other critters. Being there, I finally understood the high stress the my students often talk about, feeling a huge responsibility to get good jobs so they can provide a better life for their families back home.

Our New Place

We are moved in, unpacked and already loving our new apartment. It is nicer, newer, and quieter. It's also much better for having friends over. We love being out here where our students and friends live, rather than an hour away. On Saturday night, we walked to the supermarket; during the one-hour round trip, we ran into at least 30 people that we knew! What opportunity!

Here are some pictures of the new place, minus the living room. I'll post pictures of it when we get the sofa recovered (it's currently a very ugly faded red, white and black); it will be all black soon.

(You can click on the picture to make it bigger.)