8 Months In

Well, I met an interesting fellow. He goes by the name of Mark. I’ll sum up how I met him without getting into too much detail of that situation. Basically, I met him through this girl that ended up telling me this crazy story. I didn’t necessarily believe it, so she provided the guy’s email address. He was described as a homeless American that had lost his visa. I know, vague. At that point, I believed her story, but I wanted to get in contact with the guy in case he needed help or in case there was something I could do for him. I exchanged a few emails with him, and it may sound silly, but I could tell what kind of a person he was just based on some emails. Don’t worry, my guard is always up and I’m careful because you never know. I ended up meeting up with him in a fairly populated area anyways. I spotted him long before I got to the spot we were meeting at. I figured that would be the case, and you’ll soon find out why. I strolled up to him, and gave him a handshake. He’s a young guy, around my age I would guess. He had his hair back in a pony tail. He somewhat maintained a small goatee and a mustache on his face. Dressed in ragged, dirty clothes and very skinny. One feature, however, stood out from all of the rest. He was shoeless. Yep, nothing on his feet. I had been painted a picture of him before arrival, so I expected all of that. I did expect him to be wearing shoes, though. So, at this point, you must be thinking to yourself, he’s homeless? Why doesn’t he just go to the U.S. embassy? How did he find himself in this position? Why, why, why, what, what, what? Etc. Prior to a few emails with the guy, I was wondering all of these questions and more. As it turns out, he has chosen to live like this. For the last 8 months, Mark has been traveling throughout Asia penny less. Yes, you read correctly. No money. How is that possible? It’s not easy. He admits that he would have never gotten anywhere without the assistance of people, so he does get help. However, being a humble man, he’s got rules for his traveling. He never asks for anything. He does not accept money from anybody for any reason. He won’t accept gifts from someone unless he considers it to be virtually useless or insignificant to that person. Those are the big ones. He’s been to many different countries in Asia, including Vietnam and Japan. He was deported a few times, spent a month in jail, and currently he’s stuck in Beijing. Interesting man. He does his best to avoid larger cities for the most part. From what I gathered, people are much more willing to help you in a smaller town or village. If you have the opportunity to visit a small village, you might in fact be the only foreigner they’ve ever seen. They’re gracious, full of smiles, and happy to help. It sounds like a unique experience in itself, and I hope that I will be able to visit a small village during my stay.

So, why is he stuck in Beijing? Good question. I don’t exactly know how he managed this, but in some way or another, he lost his passport. He has since then obtained another one, but now he’s visaless. This can cause a major problem in some countries, especially China. Aside from turning the other cheek for some things as they see fit, China is fairly strict about visas. He also plans to continue his journey, and this could also cause a major problem for him, particularly in any militaristic countries. He’s been stuck in Beijing for 2 months now. He’s been trying to obtain a visa from someone that is rich because believe it or not, people do offer to purchase his visa. He’s turned down about 10 people, half of which were Chinese. Amazing. You need to refer to his guidelines of travel to understand why he wants someone rich to offer. If they’re rich, then purchasing a visa will be quite insignificant to them. He’s been hanging around some posh clubs for that specific purpose alone. Given his desperation at this point, he’s even considering approaching someone should the opportunity befall him.

His days are spent wandering around the city. The only thing he carries is a sleeping bag on his back with maybe some miscellaneous items tucked in there. I don’t think there’s much, though. Mark informed me that anything he carries tends to get destroyed. He usually sleeps outside, but will accept food or shelter from people. If a person insists on giving him money, he’ll refuse, but let them know should they insist that if they really want to help him, they can purchase some food for him. When he’s not offered food, he either fasts or waits outside of restaurants for people to finish eating and then proceeds to finish what they did not. He’s clever. For obtaining water, he simply walks into banks and fills up his water bottle from one of those large blue jugs they usually have in place for customers. You have to learn to be smart and make the most out of your surroundings if you’re going to choose that kind of a lifestyle.

I did my best to help him, if only for a short while. I took him out to lunch, and provided him with a bag of breads and some drinks. I had originally slipped money into the bag as well when we were about to depart from the restaurant. I was worried about his rules, so I inquired about how he felt about receiving money. His response did not surprise me. I discreetly removed the money so as not to offend him in any kind of way. I also provided him with an extra flashcard I had lying around. He had a hard time accepting that, but I persisted. I gave him a program he could use to access the sites that China blocks. He had been looking for such a thing. I figured the flashcard could come in handy. I had to convince him that it was insignificant to me. For the most part, it was. I was happy to provide help in any way I could. He was ever appreciative of the few items I provided, but informed me if we met up again, I couldn’t do that. I understand and respect his ways. I only talked to him once after because he doesn’t get in touch with people. People contact him and he’ll reply. I’ll do that again one of these days and see how he faired with his situation. Good luck to you, Mark.

9/1/11 – I just ate the best peach I’ve had in China by far.  I bought a few a couple of days ago. They were pretty hard to the touch. Not something you would normally eat prior to ripening in the U.S. Well, this is China. Most peaches I’ve encountered have either been too hard or too soft. I’ve bought them before and let them sit hoping for that ripening stage. It never really occurred. And if it did, it must have taken place for a brief period during the night. One day they were rock solid, the next they were in some sort of mixed stage. Some parts were very hard, and the rest was disgustingly soft. I’ve often thought about peaches from back home. Haha. This one, however, was a pleasant surprise. I ate the first two utilizing a technique I learned in the part time job I was working at during my month off. A few of the kids had asked me to break their peach in half. Yes, break. No, not cut. Break. Now you understand the meaning of a hard peach. Anyways, after the first 2, I forgot about the other 2. So they’ve sat for 2 or 3 days. I picked a good day to eat one. DELICIOUS.

Since I mentioned the part time job, I should probably go into some details regarding it. I was a bit reluctant to take it on for several reasons. For one, I’m not opposed to relaxation time. I even have a special hour of every day that I dedicate to my relaxation time. No, I’m kidding. But I don’t mind doing some relaxing.  Regardless, it ended up being a good experience and one that I’m happy I was able to be a part of. For starters, the children were ages 6-9. That alone made all the difference in teaching. There were 11 kids most days during this 2 week summer camp program. Most averaged around 8 years old. The difference in these children’s English level compared to those of the children in my normal school was incredible. 2 of them could speak quite well, and another 4 or so were well on their way to being equally as capable. It was so nice to actually be able to communicate with students even if it was only in the most basic and simple form. Getting through every day and filling the allotted time was not easy, but I managed. There was a lot of teaching time that needed to be covered, and it wasn’t always easy to come up with materials and lessons for such a thing. The day was long. My hours there were 9-5 and there was an hour of travel each way. After day 1, I had wondered what I got myself into, but the money was just too good. I stuck it out, and I’m glad I did. I felt like I was able to teach something worth teaching. We did both reading and writing exercises, crossword puzzles that I created, reviewed stories, and played learning exercise games to name a few. The crossword puzzles were great because they easily filled an hour most of the time and the kids really enjoyed them. They weren’t little baby crossword puzzles, hence the length it took to complete them. During the 2^nd week, points were thrown in throughout the entire day as well and a prize was handed out at the end of each day. I stated that if anyone could finish the crossword puzzle before me, they would get extra points. Needless to say, it never happened. I also made sure that there was a different winner each day. I would take away points or add them as I saw fit, and sometimes I had to be a little tougher on some for a couple reasons, one of those being to ensure that they did not win more than once. I also had to give points a little more freely at times. Sometimes, kids just need encouragement to shine and show their strengths. If you deprive them of that, you may never see it. I suppose we all need a little push in the right direction at times.

All in all, I got the hang of it there. I actually had to do some preparation for once to ensure that the day was filled. Most days went smoothly, but I had to be creative to fill up that time. I was thankful for the activity time of each day. I got involved too, maybe a little too involved at first. I wanted to make my own stuff, so I didn’t lend as much help to the kids as I probably could have. Again, I’m sure it helped extend the time period of such activities. I focused less on my own coloring and painting endeavors after a few days and paid more attention to the kids. Besides, paint is a scary thing around kids. This one 6 year old in particular was frightening. His name was Peter, interesting little guy. He and paint don’t really mix too well. No pun intended. Don’t get me wrong, he likes to mix actually. He likes to mix every color possible. So needless to say, most of his masterpieces came out in a lovely brown. I also feel the need to mention some of his habits. He loved this stuffed crocodile and carried it around everywhere aside from class. He was also quite fond of wearing these plastic containers that came from the provided lunch as hats. Anyways, paint from him and his classmates would end up all over the table. Miraculously, I managed to avoid decorating my own clothes. I’ll rap up this section with mentioning my favorite. Her name was Yoki, although sometimes I referred to her as Monster Yoki. She was really cute. During our nice extended break in the day, sometimes I would just grab a more enticing children’s book or one that was a little more involved and read that for a while. The place was a children’s library. Yoki would occasionally come and just sit next to me, sit on my lap, and just climb all over me. She was funny. She even gave me a gift. Her English was understandable most of the time even if the grammar lacked, I got her gist. She mentioned something about my bag one morning. I looked inside and there lay a little stuffed toy. His name his Sheepboy (I’m pretty sure, anyways). Very famous here. I thought she was just being cute, so I returned it and told her I couldn’t take that from her. She threw it back a couple times, but eventually held onto it. The next day, I was told by the woman that hired me that Yoki wished to give it to me. I accepted. Sweet, little girl. Everyone was pleased with my teaching; children, the woman that hired me, and the parents. The other male student, there was only 2, kept pressing me about coming back in the winter and told me he would miss me. He even asked for my email and took a picture with me. I enjoyed the experience.

Well, starting up school hasn’t been my favorite thing in the world. It’s difficult to return to work after a month. It became even more difficult when I decided that I was kind of over this job. My contract through my company isn’t valid, and I could leave anytime I wanted and avoid any kind of penalties. Regardless, I will stick out this 1 year contract and finish what I started. I want to do that for many reasons. For one, valid or not, I agreed on a year term. Secondly, I want to be able to state that I remained with the same company for one year and be able to show that experience on my resume. Maybe it will come into use, maybe not. I could have changed companies or found another job, if I really wanted, but my location is just so amazing. How many people are able to wake up, take 10 steps and arrive at their job? Probably more than I think, but still. It’s nice. The lack of traveling I do in the morning is so nice. I don’t have to worry about the crowded streets, buses, or subways. It’s a beautiful thing. Besides that, it’s not a hard job. I struggle with it because I want to be good at it and provide a good service for the children I teach. It’s been even harder since my return. I find it difficult to keep class interesting, not just for the kids, but for myself. I’m bored! I’ve searched on the internet many times and found a few things here and there, but most of the games are hard to explain so I need to keep it simple. Others just don’t work in my classroom setting or aren’t age appropriate. My roommate uses Chinese in the classroom to explain phrases and sentences and things like that to the kids. I don’t have that luxury besides a little here and there. It’s both good and bad.

I have a lot of new kids in some classes, but I also have a lot of the children I taught during the last semester. I’m grateful for that. I did lose some of my golden children, though. My roommate and I both gained baby classes as well, but I think I got stuck with more. They’re scary. They’re like big eyed little aliens just looking up at you with both curiosity and fear. Naturally, the first week with them was the hardest. It’s a new school for them, they’re young and away from home, and have no idea what’s expected of them. I should mention that the babies range between ages 2 and 3 I believe. I will admit that even after 3 days I saw a tremendous difference in their actions, participation, and general demeanor. They’re starting to get the hang of it now that we’re 3 weeks in. I have some classes that are really good, and some that are really bad. I don’t even really play games with them. I’m not sure what they’re capable of. Maybe we’ll try in the future. So far, all I’ve done is had them hit cards here and there. Some really like it and wind up with all their might. I’ve actually cut down my game playing in all my classes. Some days, we don’t play at all. Only my oldest classes now have 30 minute sessions. My middle classes have 25 minutes, and my baby classes have 20. Unfortunately, some have 25 too. It’s hard enough to fill those 20 minutes with the babies, so filling an extra 5 is not fun.

As for kids, I lost some of my prized ones as previously mentioned. I lost Daisy and Julia. My roommate now teaches them. I do still tutor for Julia, though. At least I have that.  I still have Yoyo from last semester. She’s so funny. I’m not sure what her deal is. Maybe she’s just shy, but she’s 20x better than what she was. I’ve spent a lot of time with her so she’s much more comfortable with me. When we practice greetings and things or play games, Yoyo always says “Let me try, let me try” and raises her hand up. I normally call her up 2-3 times to give her extra practice. Sometimes she wanders up regardless if I call on her. She knows what to say, but just kind of mumbles it under her breath and puts her head down. Once she’s finished though, we exchange a high five, and she smiles and runs back to her seat. Her run is hilarious. I’ll try to explain it. Hmm. Think of maybe a mix between a penguin running and a bear running on its hind legs. It’s kind of a waddle with dramatic steps and claws bared. So funny. Whenever she sees me, though, most of the time she gives me a big smile before her shyness takes over and she wanders away with her head down. During the dancing, which is mentioned in the next paragraph, Yoyo only does a little. It’s funny when she actually makes an attempt of dancing, but most of the time she’s watching some teacher with curiosity. All the teachers that know her love her because she is just so damn cute.

I get to dance now as well in my school. The school always has their ‘morning exercises’ that just about every teacher and every child participates in for about 30 minutes in the morning. Well, my roommate and I have joined their ranks. It’s quite a scene. There were 3 songs that they were still using from last semester, but they’ve recently got rid of 2 and added 2 or 3 more. It’s too bad because I liked the older ones better. They were a little less retarded in my opinion, and I had just gotten the hang of them for the most part. I pretty much have the hang of these now, but they’re dumb. The one song is probably the worst. In one part, you have to be a snake, in another a bear, and another a kangaroo. Yeah, go ahead and try to visualize that. Despite the stupidity of it, I actually enjoy it. The kids get a kick out of my dancing. When I first arrive on the scene, countless screams of my name can be heard all over from my various kids. During the act, I’ll see kids turn around or laugh, or poke one of their friends to join in the laughter at watching me. Amusing to say the least. Haha. It’s also 30 minutes less I have to worry about during the day.

 That’s enough school talk for the moment. Now I’ll slip into a semi-related subject. Tutoring. I was contacted by a father of two of my students. They’re twins. Their names are none other than Caesar and King. (Sometimes I’ve called the one King Kong and the other Caesar Aralias. King doesn’t like it.) What a wild bunch. Those guys are crazy. They’re the model children to represent boys. I’m sure you’ve heard people say girls are so much better behaved than boys. They are the reason why. I end up moving them in most classes. During one particular morning dance, King just wanted to run in a small circle for just about the entire time. Teachers grabbed him, scolded him, and moved him. I picked him up and held him still. Nothing mattered. He had one thing on his mind. Circles. And more circles. I’ve only had one tutoring class with them as of right now. I know one thing. If I want to keep that job, I need to make it more exciting for them. I need to keep them moving, and doing actions. I can be such a child sometimes, so why is it so hard for me to figure out how to make a child’s class exciting?

I recently joined a gym. It’s great, aside from the fact that I can’t go right now. It’s a really nice gym, nice equipment, has a pool, and it’s a big place. The most beautiful thing about it is its proximity to my home. It’s about a 5 minute walk. I couldn’t ask for more. I had an old friend help me locate some gyms because I had made up my mind to join one. I had extra money from that side job and could afford it. I was also getting quite tired and bored with home exercises for the last 6 months. My muscles were dying for some good ol’ weights. I looked at one that was a little farther away. It was small and had what I needed. That gym was charging 1000 rmb for a year’s membership. Mine cost me 1399 rmb for 6 months. I had no interest in a year’s membership because the fact is I don’t think I’ll be in this area after another 6 months. Anything is possible, though.  When I was looking at this gym and talking to one of the salesman, I played around and tried to see if there was wiggle room on the price. Impossible. He wouldn’t budge. I think he wanted to, but it’s just one of those places where they don’t adjust the price. I had it in my mind to walk and began to, but then realized this gym was just too perfect, and I was going to end up coming back there anyways. I had it in my mind to pay around 1500 so I was still under that price. The guy had already offered me a gym bag that normally only came with the year membership, but since I couldn’t get the price adjusted I wanted to see what else I could get. I went with simplicity. I said, ‘Ok, then give me a t-shirt.’ This had to be translated, of course. He was ok with that. Haha. Nothing big I know, but it’s just a little victory for me. At least I was able to get something else out of the deal. I’m happy with the place, so all is well.

Maybe you’re wondering why I can’t attend the gym right now. Well, what a great question! Almost a year ago, I hurt myself at a gym. I had been doing shrugs with really heavy weight and doing lots of them in between a lot of sets. Stupid. I hurt my trap muscle, which in part affects mostly my neck and maybe a little of my back. My neck had really hurt. I wasn’t sure what I did, but after a few days I felt fine again. Wrong. I went heavy doing a barbell curl and that really hurt. Worse than before. After that, my head had to be kept turned sideways. Yes, I was in that much pain. It lasted for weeks. I went to physical therapy, but I knew from the start they diagnosed it wrong. There was now popping and rolling in my back that had never been there before. This was casually dismissed. This popping and rolling has been with me since then. Whenever I adjusted my back, I could feel that. I also felt kind of twisted ever since then. Well, I hurt myself again in the gym. It wasn’t as severe, but same thing. I’ve actually thought about seeing a Chinese doctor in relation to this problem for a couple months. After this incident, I decided it was time. Originally, I was searching for a chiropractor. I searched the beijinger website and the first post I read was about an English speaking Chinese chiropractor. I gave him a call, but he was a bit pricey. For the first visit alone, it was 450 rmb. I told him I would get back to him. A few people recommended I find a traditional Chinese doctor, like one that does tui na (Chinese massage) or zhen jiu (acupuncture). Someone from my company helped me find a place that practices tui na, but upon arrival I decided it was not what I needed. Very cheap, but not for me. I called the chiropractor back up, and got directions.

It took me quite a while to locate him, and I had to ask countless people where it was. I know how to ask, and understand some of the directions, but other times I just nod and hope I can rely on the direction they are pointing. Eventually, I found him. Unfortunately, he was away to lunch. He had asked me to come at 2, but it was too late for that. I was already there. I had asked if he could be back sooner, and he said if possible that he would be. I waited by his door for about an hour. Luckily, he did return about a half hour earlier than originally planned. It was worth the wait. This guy knows what he’s doing. Within minutes of analyzing my condition, he was able to tell me what was wrong and quite confident he could fix it within about 5 sessions. I was relieved. Yes, a bit expensive, but to be honest, I would have paid more to fix this issue. I’ve been dealing with it for far too long. My suspicions were confirmed and I am a little twisted. The main problem lies in my left trapezius muscle. This doctor incorporates tui na and zhen jiu in sessions as well as other things according to what he sees fit. He was able to place pressure on certain areas to locate the problem and stop the popping and rolling I had been feeling. Incredible. I knew I found the right guy. Well, I have seen him 3 times so far and the sessions are quite painful. I want to scream. I keep pretty silent though, aside from the occasional moan, and just let him do his work. The last session I got to experience some acupuncture. He only used 4 needles and they did not lie in my skin for long, but they fricken hurt. I felt soreness and maybe some numbness and sharp pains in the affected area during the procedure. Well, if it has to be done, it has to be done. Sit back, or lie down in this case, and take it like a man. The only downside is the amount of money I’m spending on him. It cost me 450 rmb for the first session and then 300 for each session after. I’ve already had 4 sessions and after my last one, he informed me that I’ll need another 3-5. Great. Medical expenses can find you no matter what country you’re in.

When it rains, it pours. A few days ago, I noticed a slight bump/lump on the right side of my neck. At the time, I had thought it to just be something from the doctor maybe being a bit rough on my neck. I paid it no attention and only just realized its true nature yesterday. My throat had been getting progressively worst, but I dismissed it without thinking too much on it. I had made soup for the past 2 nights and threw in some healthy things like garlic and other stuff. I never expected this. I even gargled with salt water the one morning before school just in case and for some relief. Yesterday, (9/29) my symptoms got real bad. I woke up with a lot of pain in my throat. I forced down a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (my typical breakfast), which was not easy. That hurt. I had made up my mind to go to school because it was Friday, the last day I needed to get my bonus for the month, and the last day before a week off for the national holiday. Well, after 10 minutes I came to the sad realization that I would inevitably not make it through the day. I told the teacher in the class I had to go home. It hurt to talk, and I knew it just wasn’t going to happen. I’m so fortunate I live right next to my school. I got home and worked on home remedies all day. I ate steamed pears with honey, recommended by a friend. I gargled with warm salt water and Listerine multiple times. Listerine kills bacteria. I drank green tea with honey a few times. I eventually wandered out to a pharmacy, told the sales people my afflictions and purchased some meds. Yesterday was miserable. Today looks to be equally as miserable. It’s hard to say if it’s a little better or not. If it is, it’s not very noticeable. I’m leaving for the hospital with a friend from my company in about 30 minutes. I’m not looking to play around with this and want to be rid of it as soon as possible. You know you like food when all you can think about during times of sickness is the food you can’t eat and desperately want. I did the same thing during my dysentery affair. I can’t wait to eat some decent food. I even have a few meals planned out, one involving a buffet at this restaurant called big pizza. The food isn’t great, but it’s all you can eat and they have lots of western treats; obviously pizza, French fries, wings, and lots of other things. It’s China, so of course the pizza isn’t great, but it’s not bad. They have some weird ones. The one is quite awesome, though. More of a dessert, but it’s good. It’s chocolate raspberry pizza. Sounds gross perhaps, but it’s fantastic.

Well, here’s what happened with the hospital. I’ll just sum it up quickly. After their diagnosis of tonsillitis, a bill was estimated to about 750 rmb. This was for the medicine they were going to give me, including an iv. Although nothing had been given to me yet, so nothing was owed. We left and purchased some pills (the other option) from a pharmacy nearby. After a day on those, I decided I would need an iv to get this problem taken care of as soon as possible. Pills cost me 30 rmb. The iv from a clinic cost me 400 in total for 3 days of injections. Yesterday was my last day, and I’ve been feeling better each day. To celebrate the grand finale of those lovely needles; afterwards, I went out and had a pizza for lunch followed by a large double blueberry blizzard from Dairy Queen. Damn Dairy Queen. You know, I had originally ordered a medium for 19 rmb, but I was looking on and noticed the size difference between a large and medium. It was quite substantial, and the large was only another 3 rmb. Yep, Dairy Queen got me. How could I not? They know it’s stupid to do otherwise. They just want to snag that extra 3 rmb. They know it. And I know it. I didn’t even want that much ice cream, but the cost is nothing so I had no choice in the matter. Anyways, the point is. I’ve been eating solid food again. So happy for that. I still have to be careful what I consume and stay away from spices, though. That pretty much means don’t eat Chinese food. That’s not entirely true, but there is enough truth in it.

Here’s a little story that I almost forgot to mention. There was a girl here, a friend of mine from Shanghai. She stayed for almost 2 weeks, and I had a great time with her. That was almost a month ago now, I suppose. On one of our outings, we went to this famous hutong. It’s basically a large alleyway. I had been there once before. It’s very cool. There are lots of shops of all different things, restaurants and smaller venues selling food. You can always find a lot of people here. Even if you don’t go in the shops, it’s a cool little adventure just to walk around and see everything. There’s this ‘cheese’ you can only get there in Beijing. It’s quite popular. I say ‘cheese’ because the Chinese call it cheese, but I’m not convinced its cheese. It has more of a consistency like yogurt.  Some are thicker than others. It’s pretty good, though. There are also these churros that have hot chocolate sauce on them served in vanilla ice cream. I have yet to try them, but don’t you worry. I will. Get ready for the point of this little tale. We had been walking along, and I carelessly step on potholes and things like that all the time. I like to do it intentionally because I’ve heard crazy tales of people falling in and I feel like I’m defying those stories in a small way. Well, I got my just desserts this time. The pothole was covered, and I hadn’t paid much attention to it.  Turns out, it was just a temporary cover while some idiot was working on it. There was no caution sign or anything of that nature. My right foot fell right in and sunk in the muck. I quickly recovered from the ordeal and pulled my foot out. I got plenty of stares while doing so. I’ll admit I was pretty mad. Some obscenities slipped past my teeth, and I was not discreet about it. The worker came running around, but said nothing. No apology. I just kept walking anyways. I was with good company and was urged to not be mad and to just forget about it. I was able to do so for the most part, and I even laughed a little about the stupidity of the whole thing. I was mostly mad about my shoes getting ruined for the time being. The mud dried relatively quickly and blended in with the gray color of my shoes, so at least I had that going for me. I later had them cleaned for a mere 20 rmb. Sold!

I’ll also throw in some general observations of China and its people. This time, however, I’m going to focus on the men and what I’ve noticed.  The men here just appear to be ruder in general and less caring about their behavior and how it’s perceived even in the public eye. During the summer time, men gallop around without their shirts and most of the time, that’s not a pretty sight. I know I previously stated that most people are skinny here, but I’ve decided most are skinny fat and there are plenty of fat people as well. They’re not as big as Americans, but fat nonetheless. Exercise is not something practiced by the majority of people. When it appears, it takes shapes in small forms and in different methods. If you weren’t lucky enough to catch them shirtless, the alternative was seeing countless men with their shirts rolled up halfway up their upper bodies. That’s a sight to see. Table manners are no better. I got to witness some great fork action yesterday when I was eating that pizza. I witnessed this man picking up slabs of meat and gnawing around it as opposed to cutting it into smaller pieces. Perhaps the power of the fork and knife eludes him and remains a mystery. I also got to watch him do the same with a chicken wing. I think I might have nightmares from it. I sat there wondering, how can his girl enjoy watching this? I’ve witnessed lots of other scenes similar as well. I also feel that most men don’t show much courtesy towards women in general, whether it’s their own or not. While lying around in the clinic getting the injection (They took about 2 hours each time), I watched a husband pull a chair in to sit with his daughter. I had originally thought that he was being polite and bringing it for his wife. Nope. Not the case. It was for his own fat, lazy self. He appeared to be older than the wife and much heavier for sure. His wife was a young, cute woman with a pleasant demeanor. What could have brought these two together? Why? Money is a powerful thing, I guess. I’d like to think that wasn’t the case, but it seems that it is more often than not. Speaking of the clinic, I got to listen to this old guy continuously burp. Don’t feel left out ladies, I got to enjoy the lovely melodies of an old woman’s burping as well. And a final note that I wanted to include was the buses. There’s a sign one very bus that says a specifically colored seat is reserved for seniors, pregnant women, and those in need. I have no problem with people making use of those seats when no one needs to sit there, but I do have a problem with those seats not being given up when need be. Instead, I’m constantly giving up my seat to those who need it. Sometimes, I do my best to sit in the back of the bus so I can retain my seat for a little. Even that doesn’t always prove to work. I even just give it to younger girls at times too. As far as I’m concerned, girls and women should have the privilege of sitting before men. I fear I’m the only one with that kind of thinking, though.  It amazes me sometimes.

As if this post hasn’t carried on long enough, there is still more I want to share. Months ago, I witnessed a woman quickly pull out her breast and shove her baby on it while riding the subway. That was interesting. I’ve also noticed a lot of interesting brands for clothing that are relatively big here in China. Perhaps you’ve heard of hush puppies?I think that’s the name, if memory serves me right. No? They sound vaguely familiar to me. Anyways, I’ve seen them in many malls and they’re treated more like a Gap here. Most of the wears actually seem intended for adults. Astro boy is another one. This is a character from a Chinese cartoon that can be found in the U.S. as well. I’m fairly certain the show originated in China. Regardless, you’ll see his face all over. I see him on my students and on young adults as well. And since we’re discussing fashion, I can’t help but mention this one shirt I came across. An older man was sporting it. It was gray in color with purple dolphins. Yes, there were many purple dolphins facing all different directions. It was interesting to say the least. And last, but not least, there’s Playboy. Yep, Playboy. Playboy is quite popular here in some form. You’ll see that devious, little bunny symbol on shoes, shirts, pants, wallets, etc. It seems to be more of a cheaper alternative for the most part. It’s thrown on items of lesser value or at least less classy. It’s probably all fake, so it makes no difference.

Long enough for you? I hope so. It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I got wrapped up in things here and there. I hope you all continue reading and I’ll do my best to keep the gaps in between posts a little smaller.

One more side note, it’s been a little lonely here. I’ve been miserable about school and not happy, but I’m working on changing my attitude to ensure better days. So far so good.

-Jeff

May I please have some dysentery? Surely, coming right up.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. I’m just feeling like I’m always biting off more than I can chew. Again, too much stuff I want to do. My Chinese language studying has been slacking because priorities and time have been spent elsewhere. Besides tonight (7/14/11), I hadn’t touched my guitar in a couple weeks. My excuse for that, though, is that it’s just so damn hot. I did, however, finally purchase a fan. It beats air conditioning in my mind, and I’m much more comfortable when going to sleep. It also uses little to no power, so it’s a nice alternative. You’re welcome China/world. Yes, I’m aware that using a fan is not much of a going green gesture, but it’s something. I just don’t know how to go about studying Chinese sometimes. I have a couple programs, and of course the internet can be your best friend at times. Maybe my motivation has just been lacking for whatever reason. It’s always tough when you’re learning and studying by yourself. This is what I do with most things. It’s challenging, more sometimes than others. My reasoning with that is, why do I need someone else? I can do it myself. If other people can do it themselves, so can I. The problem with that logic is I could probably learn 20x faster if someone just showed me. That’s how I learn best, by watching. It is what it is, though.

Yeah, it’s hot. But you know what? I’ll take it over the cold any day, so please ignore my minuscule complaints. I happen to love warm summer nights. You can walk outside at 2 in the morning and still be perfectly comfortable (though it can be a bit uncomfortably hot here at times). It’s nice. But man, no stars whatsoever. Between the ambulant lights and the pollution from them and the city, I can hardly see any stars. Most nights, I can count the number of stars looming over my head. On a side note, there’s a pretty awesome storm brewing right now. I turned off the lights for a few minutes and sat by my window eating a mix of nuts and raisins that I put together. Really challenging, I know. Awesome to watch, though. I’ve looked up so many times into the buildings surrounding my own to see if I see anybody in their windows. No, I wasn’t creeping. I just noticed that I never see anybody when looking up in the past, so I’ve searched for people a few times. I never saw anybody until now. I saw a girl standing on the top floor of a building looking out her own window, admiring the makings of the storm. Quite the lightening show. Don’t be fooled. That’s not the only thing going on. The wind is super strong and the thunder is raging beside it. Rain just started as well.

So dysentery?  Yep. Dysentery. As many of you already know, I caught myself a nice little case of dysentery. What a lovely experience! Seriously. Ha, good one Jeff. It’s a nightmare. I’ve traced it back to what I believe came from raw salmon that was eaten during a bit of a seafood feast I had on the 23^rd of July. I didn’t feel great on Monday night following that Saturday. It wasn’t much, just felt a little sick or perhaps like I was going to be sick. I hate being right. The next morning, I felt terrible. I wanted to take off of school, but did not want to lose my bonus or pay for the day. So after much debate, I decided to just stick it out and go to school. That was not fun. I suffered from a headache for the entire day. My head was throbbing. I was also able to enjoy fevers and stomach pain throughout the day. I had no appetite, so I came back up into my apartment during my break and slept for an hour. Despite all this, I went to the afternoon school anyways and fought my way through that. Another terrific experience. That was a long two hours. I came home and slept for another 4 hours. Woke up and still did not feel great. That was about the time when bathroom troubles began. Without getting into much detail, I probably went to the bathroom more than 40 times in 4 days. You do the math. I took off Wednesday. The unfortunate part about that day was that my afternoon school wanted me to go in to meet parents that were considering sending their kids to the school. They simply wanted to see the presence of a foreign teacher. The only reason I did that was because they covered my taxi fares (which I have yet to get reimbursed for) and I got paid for the entire 2 hours despite only being there an hour. I only talked to the parents for about 5 minutes. The school even wanted me to tell them that I was sick, but had come out there just to meet with them. Taking advantage of my illness, awesome. I did feel a little better in the evening, so I attempted going to school on Thursday. Not my brightest idea. I only made it through 3 classes before I had to retreat home. Fevers and other discomforts forced me out. I actually was feeling better Thursday night, but decided it would be best to take off Friday as well. I didn’t want to go in just to have to leave again. I figured some rest would be the best idea. Good thing. Long story short, I caught a fever later that did not subside. I was burning up for hours before going to the hospital. My fever was recorded at 40 degrees Celsius, so about 104 Fahrenheit. I forgot my passport, but fortunately, my fever was high enough that they had to treat me. This blog is about honesty, so despite how embarrassing this was, I’ll post it. Prior to be given a blood test, I was asked for a stool sample. I did not want to do this. The thought alone was disgusting, and I was given a small little plastic container thing. Great.  After arguing about my desire to do such a thing, I manned up and started my walk of shame. I stepped outside to enter the adjacent bathroom which contained none other than the classic Chinese squat toilet. I had never used a public bathroom in China for going #2 and my first experience involved collecting a stool sample to boot. I don’t even use public bathrooms in America for the bodily function referred to as #2. I’ve maybe done that a maximum of 5 times in my life, and when doing so, I use a lot of caution. Aka, covering the seat in toilet paper. Anyways, it was a humbling experience.

It’s a good thing I went there, though. I was in complete disbelief when I found out I had dysentery. Dysentery? What is that? I thought that was some kind of old age sickness that I read about in history books and stumbled across in the old pc game, Oregon Trail. Well, it’s very real. After taking one of the 4 meds I was given, my fever subsided pretty quickly. I came home and sat in my bed wrapped in my blanket to sweat out anything remaining fever-wise. I got soaked in about 20 minutes. Disgusting.  Despite all this, I had plans to go to Qing Dao the following morning. We proceeded. I got zero sleep that night. This was possibly from anticipation of a trip, or possibly something I began to experience which I found out to be restless leg syndrome. It’s quite strange. I would be lying in bed at night and get this strange almost tingling feeling in my leg which results in me having to move my feet and or legs. It can be quite annoying. I attributed it to a lack of nutrients/vitamins due to my lack of eating for the past few days. Believe it or not, ignoring it and putting it out of my mind did help me. I also trapped my feet under a blanket, which seemed to help. I thought I was going crazy, but looked up what I was experiencing on Google and knew instantly that had to be it. It’s lessened since eating regularly again and hopefully will continue to do so. I just put it out of mind best I can.

Qing Dao was interesting. Not the best place to be, but nice to get out and see another part of China. I took the express train there, which just started up in Beijing about 2 months ago and has experienced many problems. Fortunately, I had none both to and from. It was a lot like taking an airplane. The train station was massive with lots of people. The train travels at about 185 mph. Took a little under 5 hours to get there I believe.  Qing Dao is a coastal city, so the aroma of seafood and sea floods the city and constantly fills your nostrils. It was a bit of a dirty city. Trash lies all over the streets. LLLLLAt least where we were. I just can’t understand the logic. People just throw their garbage on the streets. I wish someone could explain it to me. This is your city; don’t you want it to look nice? The answer is simply a lack of any kind of thought behind it at all. They just don’t care. I’ve witnessed this kind of thing in Beijing too, so don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen people throw garbage on the ground plenty of times without a care in the world. Ignorance is bliss, after all. The streets are kind of cool though because there are lots of hills, so you’re constantly walking either up or down. The drivers there completely ignore this, and drive like Nascar is watching their every move looking for their next prospect. Kind of wild. Oh and how could I forget, I was a celebrity over there. More so than Beijing. People stared like no tomorrow. They would turn their heads, turn around multiple times, look me up and down, whisper to their friends, and so on. They weren’t even discreet about it. Some tried, but they had no idea what they were doing and it was so obvious. The tactic I employed was to simply stare back and force them to turn away or just maintain eye contact in attempts to make their staring more uncomfortable. It didn’t work great, but it made me feel better. It was kind of annoying at times and quite rude. Luckily, I got used to it previously in Beijing. This was much, much worse though. People would even call out foreigner or American in Chinese right in front of me.

The coolest part of the trip was simply walking amongst the rocks during low tide and discovering all the little sea creatures residing in the tide pools. I found lots of crabs, fish, snails, hermit crabs, and even sea anemones. Pretty cool. The difference between high and low tides at this one place was ridiculous. The rocks that were once naked to the eye stretched on forever during low tide. They were covered in crustaceans and many people walked on them to catch creatures of their own. Old women were out snagging snails and clams for a meal. They had all kinds of tools to do so too. I thought it was neat. It reminded me of Acadia in Maine. Unless you’re immediate family or have been there, you won’t understand the reference. I’ll sum it up quickly. My siblings and I had visited there and wandered among the tide pools and discovered lots of cool things there as well.

The worst part of the trip was probably the mountain adventure. After seeing photos online, I was pretty pumped to do some serious hiking and discover some really beautiful looking scenery. This did not take place. I mean, it wasn’t terrible, just not very exciting – especially since I had already built it up in my mind. Went to a few different areas and none contained what I was there for. There was an area that could not be accessed because the road was closed and I’m led to believe this area held all the beauty I was in search of. Too bad. I was quite frustrated and angry that I was not able to see what I had planned on seeing. That was the whole reason I wanted to go hiking in the mountains. Things never go according to plan, do they? My fame did travel up the mountains as well, though. At one point, I was asked to take a picture with a few people.  I was pretty annoyed at first and kept saying no and in Chinese asked, ‘Why, because I’m American?’ They finally backed off, but then I felt bad so I decided to take the picture with them and another group. Haha. Whatever. Oh, and I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before. Hiking in China, unless you’re far out in the country, is quite a different experience. It’s nothing like it is in America. You won’t get a real nature experience and find some solitude to enjoy the experience and take it all in. There aren’t rugged hills and terrain that you need to trek through. No, no, no. Nothing like that. Instead, most hills are covered in nicely laid stairs for your convenience. Forget seeing any kind of animals that might live there. No, there are far too many people for that sort of thing. I was even boosted up towards the top in a chair lift before doing some stair climbing of my own. It’s just slightly disappointing, but you still get some amazing views.

I went to an aquarium that was decent. It was no San Diego Zoo (I’ve never been, but I know what it looks like), but I saw plenty of cool things. I even got to feed seals. They would clap and spin in some cases with your encouragement and make lots of noise in order to get the precious food you held onto.  Got there a little late, so I avoided the first show that was taking place there and went and looked around instead. The next show was at 1:30. I started to wait in line around 12:45 prior to and was probably about the 5^th one in line. I thought people were bad in Beijing about lines. Man, what a bad experience there. People are ridiculous. I take my lines pretty serious, but they hardly exist here. On the Beijing subways, they exist until the doors open, and then people just flood the doors from every direction without any regard to the people around them. I get such joy out of blocking people and stopping them from cutting the line, and I do it quite frequently. Sometimes I make it obvious, and sometimes I do it subtly and simply come off as an annoyance. Learn what a line is and we wouldn’t have this problem, people. But this aquarium was my worst experience by far. Once it got closer to the time when the doors would open, people started to disregard the long line that had formed and simply stepped up and waited on the sides or forced their way in the line. Not on my watch. I had waited early and got there specifically to get a good seat in the front row, and I was going to get it. This one woman really irked me. She was trying to get in front of me. Ha, I don’t think so. I do my part to enforce lines, lady. So you picked the wrong guy. After attempting to block her out with my leg and body, I finally said ‘ni hao’ a couple times, which she ignored for the first few, until I tapped her on the shoulder. I then attempted in Chinese to ask if she could see everyone else while gesturing to the rest of the line. She didn’t care. I then took other action and just used my body to really force her out and make sure she was not in front of me. She resisted, but that was a battle she was not going to win. She kept pushing and started to say something; luckily the woman in front of me told her she was wrong. She still didn’t care. The pushing continued, but I conquered. The doors were going to swing out from the center, so I was hoping a lot of the people that decided to sit on the sides would have a hard time getting in. Man, once those doors opened, all hell broke loose. I felt like I was standing in a mosh pit for a rock concert. I’ve been there and done that many times and it’s not really pleasant. Had I not braced myself on the one door, I would have been pushed right out of the center to the other side and missed the entrance completely. It was full-on madness. People were screaming, fighting, pushing, etc. I lost my cool and let loose some vulgarities of my own. It was just so ridiculous. The beast within me reared its ugly head. In the end, I got a front row seat. Unfortunately, that stupid woman did too – not too far from my own. I wanted to drop kick her. I felt bad for her little girl who was crying. She got squashed in the midst of that mob and it was that mother’s own stupid fault. People. I’ll never understand them.

The show was only about 30 minutes or so, but it was pretty cool to watch. I got a lot on video. I had no idea you could train belugas like that. They were amazing. I also had no idea dolphins could jump as high as I witnessed. They reached crazy heights. At one point, the announcer picked a girl from the crowd and asked her to hula hoop. This girl was crazy. She was decent enough at it, but watching her was a little weird. You’ll have to just watch the video. The sea lion was also great. He was quite skilled. There was also a little show that we got to watch afterwards too located in a different area. Not nearly as good, but amusing to say the least. The clowns were kind of funny. One was pretty decent at throwing knives and demonstrated his skill. After that, they picked someone from the crowd. He was asked to stand against a moveable wooden wall and they led you to believe the one guy was going to throw knives and attempt to avoid hitting the person. In actuality, they would cover his face with a hood and quickly stick the knives in the wood, then take off the hood and reveal to the person what supposedly took place. It was interesting.

Overall, not a bad trip. Stayed in a hostel that wasn’t half bad. The food was actually really good. It was mostly western, but that’s what I needed after finally being able to eat following the dysentery. My diet consisted of bland rice soup and rice for a couple days. I was so hungry and all I could think of was food. When I finally began to return to a normal diet, it was amazing. I ate most of my meals there and I’m ok with that. I had my first real breakfast in China there; eggs, bacon, a hash brown and toast. Thank you. I only real ate one local type of food in Qing Dao. It was squid on a stick (squid chuanr). Delicious. Had to eat it before I left. I was worried about the local cuisine on my stomach and also didn’t trust a lot of it, which was probably for the better. Again, not a bad trip, but I’m happy to be back in Beijing. I used to think Beijing was dirty, but after returning from Qing Dao, it looks ridiculously clean.

I have a month off before returning to work. The good news about returning is that I won’t have to attend my afternoon school anymore. I’m now full time at the morning school. I’ll miss some of the kids over there and may go visit, but ultimately, I’m happy about that. I didn’t really like that school or their methods. I can enjoy the rest of this week to myself, but next week, I have a job lined up with a library. I’m not too enthused about it, but I’ll be making 2 months’ salary in 10 days (10,000 yuan). Yes, please. The job is a day camp sort of thing in which teaching will take place as well. I’ll be there all day from 9-5. Again, not crazy about it, but the money will more than cover my trip expenses (about 2,000) and give me plenty of extra. Perhaps I’ll use that for future travels here. Regardless, it’s not a bad thing. I can also get some more experience and see different methods of teaching that I can adapt and use for my own. It’s important to take advantage of the opportunities you’re given. I was recommended here by one of the mothers of my one of my students that I was tutoring for outside of school. Networking and making contacts. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

There are a lot of things that I wanted to include previously, but may or may not include now. Some of the stuff seems irrelevant, but we’ll see. A lot of this is old news, but you might find some of it interesting.

School had been starting to go slower the closer I got to break. The days were longer. I wasn’t as enthusiastic, and I was getting bored with things. The kids were getting worse and worse too; typical of kids nearing summer holiday or anyone for that matter. I just started to ask the kids what they wanted to do so we ended up playing the same games quite often. I only have about 4 or 5 good ones anyways, but they just seemed to want to play one or two of them. I didn’t care. I figured, as long as they’re learning, what difference does it make what game we play? Let them play what they want if it helps. I still liked to play Bei Kou Bei (back to back) at the end of the week when I could and separate the classes into two teams. I could only do this with my older classes for the most part, but I enjoyed it. I like the competition amongst the kids. Some take it pretty serious, occasionally too serious. Kids would cry from time to time or just refuse to play. I dragged some up despite that, but it didn’t always go well. In my one class, the kids always fought with each other whenever we played it. I found it quite comical. One of my favorites in the class, Dunny, would always antagonize some of the kids on the other team and showboat after he won. His team only lost once to my recollection and he cried. Poor little guy. I did my best to get him back on his feet after the loss. The mute kid in one of my classes actually started talking with me one day and did pretty well for a little while before reverting back. Little Yoyo, who is pretty shy in another class of mine, got better and better. She just kind of mumbles most of the time, but at least she’s trying and she was always enthusiastic to participate when I called kids up to interact one on one verbally. Many times, she would just stand up there even after completing her own and wait to go again for another round. I allowed it because I figured the more help she had the better. She came a long way and still has a long way to go, but I’m happy with the progress she’s made. She reminded me of our family dog, Goober. No, she’s not a dog. I just found commonalities in her social behavior. You just have to be gentle and take your time with some kids. Do your best to encourage them and eventually, they’ll start to come around.

Well, yesterday I decided to venture off to somewhere. Beihai Park ended up grabbing my attention when I was looking for parks to visit online. Great choice. It was beautiful and fairly large to boot. I had looked up directions on how to get there including numerous buses I could take to get there prior to leaving my apartment. They sort of worked. I ended up asking someone in Chinese where the park was. Fortunately for me, he spoke English. He directed me across the street and ended up crossing and joining me with his mother, grandmother, and grandfather eventually. They were headed in the same direction, so it was impossible for me to get lost or so you would think. We did, however, miss our bus stop because we were talking and not paying attention. Haha. Go figure. Upon arrival, the first thing that grabs your attention is a big lake that rests in the center of the park. Boats are scattered all over it. I glanced at the map of the park (I stress ‘glanced’) before heading off. Let’s be honest, I’m more of the jump in and go type. I don’t do a lot of reading when it comes to manuals and that kind of thing. (I tend to ignore my Pop’s gentle prodding with ‘RFM’). I was curious what this place had to offer, though. I picked a great day. The weather was with me and a gentle breeze continuously cooled me off. Like Beijing itself, the lake was surrounded with weeping willows. And I happen to love weeping willows, although I couldn’t give you a logical reason as to why, I just do. They’re cool. I chose a side of the lake that seemed to get to things that were more appealing faster, and I picked the right side. There were lots of old buildings and things of that nature, not to mention the giant White Pagoda.  I’ll put up pictures of it as well as the sign that gives you a little more insight on its history. You had to climb up to see it and it was quite interesting. The thing that interested me the most here was actually something that normally wouldn’t interest me so much. Upon entering the ‘Round City’ within the park, I soon came across a giant jar known as the Jade Jar. It wasn’t too exciting, I suppose, but for some reason it caught my attention. It was just interesting reading about its history and imagining the emperors of the past utilizing it. The sign had mentioned one had used it during his feasts and had it filled with wine. I just found the whole thing kind of neat. I got some great pictures of the place and it’s probably not what you think of when you hear the word park, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Most of the parks are that way here in Beijing.

Today (8/4/11) on the other hand was not nearly as fun. I knew prior to even going to sleep that today was going to be spent cleaning. My other temporary roommate departed to his new apartment last night. So being alone here for the time being, a cleaning was long overdue. I spent about 4 and a ½ hours cleaning most of the apartment. The only thing I have left to do is clean my room, which will be easy. I’ll take care of that tomorrow. The kitchen was the hardest part. The sink alone was cleaned with 3 or 4 different stages. First, I used some kind of all-purpose kitchen cleaner, followed by disinfectant soap, and then regular soap and water. I repeated the soap and water usage later. On the counter top, I utilized the multi-purpose cleaner and soap and water. I cleaned the rice cooker, the interiors of the refrigerator, a large portion of the walls, and the stove top. The final step was sweeping and mopping the floors in there. I then had to lay out some cockroach traps to get them good and poisoned. Yep, I’ve got cockroaches. Not a lot at this point and they should be gone after this. I don’t really think I’m to blame, but I probably didn’t help. My worst offense was leaving my dishes in the sink to wash the next day. So sue me. Getting the oil from cooking off the walls was good and time consuming. But I must say, I’m proud of my work and it looks good. After my rendezvous with the kitchen, I then swept up the living room. Disgusting. The amount of dirt on the floors was ridiculous. Had I left it there any longer, I probably could have started growing plants straight from the floor boards. It just builds up from leaving the windows open. I had piles of dirt lying around. I didn’t bother mopping that because it’s pointless. Nobody cares. I then cleaned the bathroom. Disinfectant soap was also used there, followed by a bathroom multi-purpose cleaner and some mopping as well. I know you people love reading about my cleaning escapades so I had to include them. I just want to give you a glimpse of what I’m dealing with over here. Being the only one that cares about cleanliness and sanitation is a tough situation. I’m looking forward to having my own place someday. Then the messes or lack of will be my own. But all in all, the cleaning is probably building some character. I like doing the work myself because then I’m assured it’s done the right way. And it feels good and somewhat rewarding when you’re finished. I sat down to some food I ordered and a nice big bottle of beer. Beer always tastes better when you’ve accomplished something in the day. And this is my week of relaxation.

I wanted to share with you some facts and observations of my own about the city of Beijing and perhaps China in general to paint a better picture for you and allow for a greater understanding. I’m sure you know that there are a lot of people in China. I mean a lot. In Beijing alone, I was informed that nobody knows how many people actually reside here. The number of people most likely lies somewhere between 22 and 24 million people. With that being said, there are a lot of jobs that are necessary to keep the majority of people employed. For example, there are machines that do street sweeping here like many cities in the U.S., but there are also manual labor workers that do additional sweeping as well as picking up trash and general maintenance of the city. On one trip to Houhai (If you forgot, it’s an awesome lake here), I noticed huge piles of weeds sitting near the edges of the lake. People had tools to manually cut and remove the weeds. At the time, I had questioned this. I said, “Why don’t they just use machines to do this kind of work?” I was given the answer about people needing jobs. It makes perfect sense and just hadn’t occurred to me. I hadn’t even considered that prior to asking the question. The United States is constantly utilizing machines to do the work that humans are capable of doing in order to cut back spending in the long term and even work more efficiently. I guess that China understands that its people have needs. In that aspect, bravo. I’m sure I’ll think of more things to include later on.

I’ll tell you one last funny situation that I dealt with last night. It’s sort of funny now, but I was not happy at the time. I decided to go buy myself a bottle of wine. I bought a nice, cheap bottle of Great Wall wine; a dry, red wine. When I say cheap, I mean cheap. It was less than $4.00 USD, 21 rmb. I bought a cork screw, and headed on home. Later that evening, I began to prepare dinner. I then realized I had forgotten to thaw the chicken meat I was planning on consuming. Lucky for me, I had witnessed this technique before. I just boiled it for a little while before cooking it. It was one of my better meals, actually. I let it sit, and began the process of opening the wine bottle. I thought it would be fairly easy, I mean I’ve opened wine bottles before. It’s not that challenging. Wrong.  After lodging the cork screw in the cork, I soon came to realize that it was just turning and stripping the hole I had made. The cork was just crumbling. Great. I played with that for a while before searching on the internet how to handle this situation. It was recommended that I try a different angle in the cork and if that still doesn’t work, shove it in the bottle. Well, I tried about 4 or 5 different angles and nothing worked. I then attempted to cut out the cork with a knife. I did get some of it out, but that wasn’t working too well either. I then reached for a different blade and just stuck it in that fricken cork. It started to move down towards the contents of the bottle. Victory seemed near. I continued to press. I didn’t think that one through too much. Because of all the pressure of me pushing the cork in, the wine ended up bursting in my face and all over the kitchen. Awesome. What a lovely, sticky mess. I couldn’t eat until it was cleaned up, especially after all the effort I put forth in there cleaning the other day. I wiped everything, ran a mop over the floor, and rinsed off in the shower. Fortunately, my food was still warm. I sat down and enjoyed that, and poured myself a glass of the wine. Yes, you better believe I was going to drink it after that – cork pieces or not. There were a few tiny pieces of cork floating around in my first glass, but after that it was ok. Terrible experience and the wine wasn’t that good. Lesson learned. You get what you pay for. I paid for cheap, crumbling cork wine. I got it. I did, however, consume the entire bottle and got a little tipsy. Nothing major. It was a pleasant drunkenness.

Hope you enjoy the reading.

-China man