ahhh china

so the days are passing now and I am finally on vacation. After the most cursory of visits to the police in bejing I have flown the coop to chengdu. Staying with a friend and drinking some 3 year old rum. Will post more tomorrow just wanted to check in.

flowers in my hair

Because Im going to beijing. Not moving yet just going to try to get the visa stuff sorted so I will be away for about a week . I will try to keep up the blistering pace of my blog. As i realize that it is like crack and without it everyday some of you will be forced into doing degrading acts with your body that are only appropriate between consenting adults. So to prevent your from befalling such a fate I will try, try to write. No promises and I dont want the comments section filled of horror stories about things you had to do to try to get a little fix. and how it wasnt as good as the stuff I push. You know . Ok wish me luck with any sort of competence I should be able to go on vacation in a few days. Though asking for competence from government workers is not exactly a promising start.

guess what i did

thats right people I bought my first laptop. and it is pretty good if i do say so myself. Though i must confess that i know nothing about computers as those of you who follow this blog religiously can attest to. But I did get an interesting perspective on china from my foray into the computer owning world. First I collected some friends one of which is chinese and could translate for me and one who knows a fair amount about computers, and we all headed down to the technology market. To say that there are alot of choices would be an understatement. After looking at hundreds of thousands of laptops I narrowed the choices down to three. I settled on one not for any particular reason but because they all seemed about the same and I am a terrible shopper, so into the store we all went to buy the laptop. Ok you would think if someone wants to spend nearly 1000 dollars the sales assistants would do whatever was needed to make the sale. However you clearly do not live in Henan. I asked if I could have Windows Vista in English installed. No because it doesnt exist. Ok how about Windows XP in English? Yes we have it but it will cost extra. Ok fine can I get the RAM upgraded to 2 GB (I have no idea what that means I was told it was better so I asked). And instead of telling me of course but there will be a fee the sales assistant told me that I dont need that. Now he has no idea what i use my computers for but he was sure it was unnecessary. So I said fine how much is the laptop. Mind you I had asked a few minutes earlier when scoping out all the choices and magically the price increased a few hundred RMB. So I said fuck it and left to the next store. Ok same questions Vista in English? Sorry no. XP in English? Yes but the pirate version only. Ok how about the RAM upgrade? Again you dont need it. If I told you my head almost exploded you probably wouldnt believe me. But it did I could actually feel it throbbing and nearing critical mass. Then i finally said I dont care if i need it or not I want it. OK. So now I am set to buy my laptop. The sales woman leaves and goes into the back. I wait. And wait. and wait. and 20 minutes later she comes back and asks would you like to buy the laptop. Hahahahahaha.....visions of knives and slashing and guts on the floor. People are real lucky. Yes I would like to buy it. That is why I am still sitting here. Ok wait one moment. 15 more minutes and I get up to ask where oh where has my laptop gone? where oh where can it be? Oh sorry it is coning from another store you will have to wait 15 more minutes. Ok I am gong to get some food. I shall return. I Return and there is my laptop but with a guy working to install the pirate XP. OK I will wait . An hour later he is finished. Except the wifi doesnt work. What the fuck? So now he tells me it is because the computer is Chinese and XP is in English. Did i mention vision of destruction on a large scale? An hour later he finally gets his boss, who opens some task manager clicks the enable button and presto change the wifi works. I pay and leave. China at its best.

sports

Yesterday was the end of college football and I went over to a friends house to watch the game. He is a florida graduate and was of course rooting for them. As I watched the game I got to thinking about how much the sports culture of the US dominates life. If you still live in the US the next time you go to a bar notice what is on the TV. I will bet you it is a sports game, and probably not one of the home town teams. Perhaps in beijing there will be more places to go and watch big games with bigger crowds, but here in my little village there isnt a single bar let alone a sports bar so there is nowhere to watch the games. On a related note I have been loosely following the NFL playoffs and I can not remember a more boring post season. There isnt a single team to cheer for. I mean really, go ......who? See all the teams are shit. There isnt an interesting story about any of them. ah well . Just something i noticed. Thought I would share.

good-byes

And the process begins. As I will be one of the last of the teachers to leave for the winter holiday from this school I get the distinct pleasure of watching everyone else leave to go on vacation or to move for good. It is odd as things still will be the same for me when I wake up in the morning, and the next morning and the next. I am not real good at empathy, actually I am terrible at it. So on the one hand I know that it is a big deal for some of my friends to leave as they wont ever come back to this school but when they dont make a big deal of it should I care? Some of the students that have become friends have made it a point to stop by and say goodbye before they go home for the holiday and I know I wont be seeing them again, so that is kind of sad. Others have said they will try to come to beijing to visit I dont know how realistic that is. I suppose I should look at it like christmas, its the thought that counts.

dirty

So in order to host a dinner party I had to go to the market to buy the food that I would be cooking. For some reason yesterday I got a glimpse of what china (at least this part) looks like through new eyes. Let me explain, I have been going to this market for the better part of 2 years,on an almost weekly basis. It is where I buy my vegetables and produce. Now when I first went there long long ago I thought it was "not so nice" but hey when in rome right. So for various reasons I have not been back to the market in about a month, but I went yesterday and for fucks sake. It is dirty. No I mean dirty. Like foul dirty. The vegetables are on the ground, directly on the ground no tarp, no table just sitting on the street. And there are butchers next to produce vendors, so there is blood and run off from the butchers mixing with the cabbage and veggies. And there is a part in the middle where they kill the chickens and pull the birds feathers off, this is in the middle and you have to wade through the muck at that point to continue through the market , it is really nasty. This is in addition to the dogs milling about, the children deficating on the street people spitting and blowing snot rockets. Like I said nasty. So I bought what I needed to have a Taco Night dinner party and fled. One thing I will never understand is why does it take so much effort for some to realize that to be clean and sanitary doesnt cost anything extra? I have been to loads of other markets in the world, they are something I try to visit when I travel and I can say without hesitation this one should be condemned. One thing I wont miss about Henan.

organization

So I have begun the long and arduous process that is moving. Really I have just begun to look around at all the shit I have accumulated in the two years I have lived in this apartment. It is amazing what one can collect. Worthless things that I have no idea why I even own it. And some clothes that I havent worn since I got here. It is pleasing in many ways, not the part about seeing all this crap, but the realization that soon I get to light a huge fire and burn all the stuff that I have no need for. I may donate it, but I like the image of a cleansing fire much better. I think in the new place I will try a different approach and not accumulate stuff, why do we as humans like to have things? Is it innate? Do we learn it? How many things do you have that you dont need or use and they just sit there creating clutter and taking up space? I will be better about having less. Of course as I write that I have another window open on my computer looking at laptops, which I will go and buy probably tomorrow? But I need a computer right? Without one you wouldnt get the pleasure of reading my blog.

snow

No it isnt snowing here, I just wish it were. When I lived in Boston and Buffalo for all those year I was spoiled by the winters. I got used to it being cold and snowing. I used to think that I would never miss the snow and I would be happy to live in a climate where it didnt snow. Oh how wrong I was. Here in Henan, yes I am still in Henan, it is cold but with out any snow. It is sort of having all the bad and none of the good. I still need to wear a coat and my hands get cold and my nose runs from the temperature, but I dont get to sit and watch the flakes fall, or make snowballs and pelt other people, or shovel the walk. None of the things I loved about the snow, I never get to read about heart attacks from exertions and I never get to slip and bust my ass going down the stairs. The days are just short hard and cold. It is almost enough to make me dislike the winter. I hope beijing will be more what I like.

pictures

Some of the people who have read this so far have told me that I need to include more pictures of myself and of china. Now while I agree that it would be a slight benefit to the blog and all of you who are reading this I still must tell you it isnt going to happen anytime soon. I will be working on getting some pictures that represent whatever it is I am writing about, but I started a blog and not a facebook or myspace page just for exactly that reason. This is where you can come to read what I have been thinking, what I have been confounded by, what trials and tribulations are my life, not to look at me or watch video I have taken. If you want to see me or china come over to visit. I can always take the time to show you around and I really would love to see you.

entertainment

I am not so big on watching movies. I will occasionally sit down to watch one but normally I prefer not to. And as I live in China there isnt a whole lot on the TV that i can watch or understand. So my passive entertainment options are limited. Even with downloading from the web I dont really get into TV shows. That being said I still must somehow spend my time. I have read about every English language book that the school has so I have exhausted that avenue. And yet I still have boatloads of time to fill. It isnt a complaint just something I have noticed becoming more pronounced in the past few days. Usually I read the news online to kill time but it has been a slow news week and not many of the stories interest me thus I havent spent much time reading online. Most people dont have the time to stop and smell the roses, I have so much time i could sit and watch them grow. I guess I could pack up and prepare to move, but I really hate packing. Therein lies the rub eh. I want to be entertained, not do shit I dont like doing.