The second first week

The two week mark of being back in China hit me today. The school year fatigue has started to set in, but more because of weekend hijinx than anything to do with the students. But it's nice that it's finally a quiet night outside my windows. The fireworks don't seem to be booming tonight, and with some slightly clear skies this afternoon, it's not unbearably muggy in my apartment. It is, however, a much more beautiful place because of the 42" plasma TV that is now sitting in front of me, hooked up to my computer! I made a deal with the landlord and covered part of the purchase, so I now have the capability of hosting some movie nights as well as some Sunday morning Hockey Night in Canada get togethers! Should be excellent, and I already have a couple people willing to take up space on my couch on Sunday mornings! There's reason for the excitement: I've never enjoyed the pleasure of a nice, big TV in my house, well, ever. I've already got the surround sound worked out. Amazing.

Life in China is settling down. It's still nuts and weird and is still all the things I came to expect last year... In the past week, I saw a small herd of cows walking down the highway without any visible people with them, have taken motorcycle taxis pretty much everywhere, and went for a run which included sightings of a UFO, a statue of a golden child riding a flying bull, and "statues" (if you can call them that) of animated corn cobs with hair and toothy smiles, all in the same park within 10 minutes. I've experienced more humidity than any other time in my life, a torrential downpour which partially flooded my kitchen and storage area, had firework shrapnel fly onto my patio because they were exploding so close to my windows, shot bottle rockets off the top floor of a friends apartment and had food that involved huge pieces of boiled beef tendon. Did I mention singing Bon Jovi at karaoke last night? No? Oh. It happened. 

I've said it before: This is China.

I seem to be feeling ridiculously happy about the start of my second year here. Already I've had a tonne of fun with my friends from last year and have met/hung out with a tonne of people who are either new or who I haven't gotten to know in previous outings. So much has been put behind me now and it seems like a fun year of adventure is ahead. I'm still uncertain as to where my week of holidays at the end of the month will take me, but it looks like it'll be either Seoul, South Korea or it might be Shanghai. Seoul might be a bit pricey, although I have a contact there that offered up a piece of carpet for me to sleep on, and since S. Korea has been at the top of my list since summer, we'll have to see.

I still have some work to do tonight, so I'm going to have to sign off. Thanks to those people who still stop by to participate in my fun, vicarious as it may seem. To help please the crowd, I've attached a couple of pictures for enjoyment. The first is a shot from my apartment balcony, and the next is from some of the weekend fun (we put on a classic Habs-Nordiques hockey game at Darren's place, Darren and I had a hockey fight, and I was able to get a picture just as Quebec scored a goal. Perfect.). Much love from the Chinafied side of the world...

T