October 29, 2006

• China Blog: Day 68
  

  11:26 Beijing Time
  

  
  

  Phrase Of The Day: Name, name mang… yibufen er (So, so busy…Part 2)

  
  
  

  *WARNING: FAIRLY-HUGE-BLOG APPROACHING*
  
  (Also contains very revealing – and disturbing – pics of grown men in unusual costumes. Read at your own risk.)

  Okay. Now I have a few minutes to catch the ol’ breath. So why the lack
  of updates of late? I know in my last blog I alluded to some kind of
  busy schedule, with possible undertones of “getting a life”. The
  rumours are true, folks. I simply haven’t been sat in front of the
  computer long enough to write a full entry.

  So what has caused this distinct lack of free time? I’ll give you a brief day-by-day rundown.

  Friday, Oct. 20th: My so-say “Day Off” was taken up with my tai chi
  class, followed by a trip to Guilin Lu with Tom and Tracie. Then in the
  evening we went out for a meal as our D&D game got cancelled. Was
  very tired, and spent a lot of the day just reading ^_^

  Saturday, Oct. 21st: Sanskey’s birthday, so spent the day hanging with Fiona
  and getting her gift. Then all evening we were either eating Japanese
  food, rocking the casbah at KTV, hanging out at a bar or stuffing our
  faces with chuar at 3am.

  Sunday, Oct. 22nd: Hung out with Fi most of the day. We had an article
  to write and various other work-like bits and pieces to do, as well as
  introducing her to Tom, Tracie, Josh and Carrie.Ended up going to Yuan
  Yuan Yuan, my favourite quiet spot and place to do work, and spent too
  much money on iced mochas.

  Monday Oct: 23rd: School, school, school. Busy all day working on the
  vast mountain of marking I have to get through. Then when I finally let
  myself leave the office I had to trek across town to the Shangri-La for
  a Time Warp rehearsal. Met American Scott,
  a friend of Fiona’s, as well as a bunch of other new folks including my
  fellow D&Dork, Wes. Finished evening very, very tired, so no chance
  of a blog when I finally got home

  Tuesday Oct 24th: Work in the morning, teaching my huge, oversized
  freshmen classes. Bah. Then I just kinda vegged out all day and
  couldn’t be bothered to blog. Went to Fi’s in the evening, and did
  equal amounts of nothing.

  Wednesday Oct 25th: Bit of a shit day, really. On the way back from
  Fi’s I saw a suicide jumper- a girl, couldn’t have been much older than
  25. Then on the bus home, we had a crash. Which kinda sucked. Then I
  had an exam to invigilate, earning me the hatred of an entire class.
  Then I got home and saw on the news that the girl had indeed died. This
  threw me into a weird, depressive funk.Suicide is China’s biggest killer of folk under 35,
  amounting to 250,000 deaths a year. But seeing one in progress just
  kinda rammed it home. That could easily have been one of my students on
  that window ledge. Many blame pressures of the one-child system, and
  children believing that they are unable to live up to their parent’s
  expectations. That’s just in the cities, as well. I think the thing
  that really got me was that as I was hustled from the site by a police
  officer, I could have sworn my eyes met hers, and just for a second,
  there was this crazy connection, like I could feel her pain. Then it
  was gone, and it was the recollection of that instant that made me feel
  so bad.

  I went out to get some take-away and slum in the flat for the night,
  being all mopey and depressed. However, a qucik phone chat with Fi
  later, and she offered to come over and cheer me up, which to be honest
  I needed. Especially when I called my folks later that night and they
  were able to talk to her for the first time. Cue the Scott-bashing. Bah.

  Thursday, Oct. 26th: In class all day, except for two hours where I
  went and got my hair cut with Maria and Akiko. It was pretty cool, and
  the first time I’ve really done anything with Akiko since the first
  Teacher’s Dinner. Went to the SwissBel Hotel, because Maria knows the
  manager and because it serves up a really awesome cheesecake. Also had
  English Corner, but that’s a rant for another day.

  Friday, Oct. 27th: More Tai Chi with Liu Laoshi, and today we finished learning the whole first sequence
  Apparently, learning the whole thing in less than two months is really,
  really quick. Feel like uber-Tai-Chi-Person. However, was totally
  knackered after the class. Not helped by the fact that I had loads of
  workto do, including marking the exam
  Then in the afternoon a whole bunch of us met up to play D&D. This
  makes me very, very happy- I’d resigned myself to a year of being sans roleplay, so the prospect of a regular gaming group gives me the warm fuzzies.

  Saturday, Oct. 28th. Hereafter referred to as being The Day Where
  Nothing Quite Went To Plan. Slept in late, so me and Fi didn’t meet up
  til about 12. Had dinner, but the place had no drinks that we wanted.
  Wandered around Guilin Lu while Sanskey had acupuncture, and got lost.
  Went to get costumes, but couldn’t find French Maids outfit for Fi.
  Bought sunglasses for Brad costume, before realising they were women’s.
  Oh well. After a day of stress and preparing for the Time Warp
  performance, the party finally kicked off. Had a very pleasant evening,
  and the dance went particularly well. Got a pretty good ovation, too.

  

  Madness Takes Its Toll…

  

  How To Terrify An Unwitting Audience, By Scott (Brad) And Wes (Frank)

  

  Tom & Josh….In Masks!

  Thanks to Tom for the photography! More pics HERE. Thanks to Leon for these!

  The evening was pretty awesome, and we met another Changchun blogger- Krista. I’ve read her blog a few times before, but never met her in person.
  I spent the whole evening mingling with various folk, meeting a bunch
  of new acquaintances, and generally having fun.When we finally got back
  home we were both passed out within half an hour. I’d call that a
  successful night, m’self

  Sunday, Oct. 29th: Another day that didn’t go how I wanted it to.
  Instead of my planned lazy day at Yuan Yuan Yuan, I bumped into Cameron
  on Guilin Lu and ended up going shopping at Ou Ya with him and Dennis.
  Bought two PC games under the impression they were in English.

  Were they b******s. Bah. Was glum and grumpy and tired, so aside from
  eating and playing pool with the guys, did nothing last night.

  So, that’s my week in miniature. Hopefully you can see why I haven’t
  blogged in forever. I gotta go eat now, so I’ll catch y’all later!

  Zai Jian!

  • 11:35 pm
  • 2 Comments