Breaking The Shackles

Well, the busiest days of the week came and went... Classes went as expected, starting off decent and progressively got worse. Days off also came and went. We got paid, but the amount wasn't as much as I was hoping for due to it being pro-rated (didn't work the full month), and they withdrew some of the airplane ticket that they provided for up front (which I knew about). The plan was to be able to get a computer for our home, but I think that has been post-poned probably to next month, or even the following month.

Ate at a place called Good Wood Coffee last night, I think Dad would really dig this place. Wood floors, dim lights, couches and comfortable chairs at the tables. Somewhat western food (I'd say avoid the pizza though), Jazzy music playing, and lights on the ceiling. I had some Vietnamese pork chops which came with mashed potatoes that were made from sweet potatoes with little bacon bits in them, the whole plate was delicious, but kind of pricey for China standards. I also had a strawberry smoothie to go along with it. I also snuck some of Doug's Rose smoothie, which was actually pretty good. I enjoyed it in there, it's on the 2nd floor facing a very busy street, and the sun was setting as we were sitting there, so the atmosphere was very interesting. It was also very foggy and/or smoggy last night, so the lights from the buildings bouncing off the fog made it feel very ambient. As we were leaving we saw one of our co-workers (the Irish one), sitting at a table. We joined her for a bit and chatted while she finished eating. She is planning on going to Texas for 3 weeks very soon, Houston to be more specific. We were talking her into at least visiting Austin, as Doug and I both find that to be a more interesting city. I especially like how Austin has managed to remain pretty green even though it has modernized itself. I hope she gets a chance to see it. She said we should go to Ireland if we like the green (*wink wink Dad*), and gave us some information about it, not much but a little. Turns out there are a lot of rich people living in Ireland now, so much so that a lot of Irish people will leave Ireland to come to the States to earn their money, and once they have enough will go back home because it's hard to make money there I guess... I found it all very interesting, and Ireland has always been of interest to me. Anyways, we left with her and walked across the street where she showed us a place to buy those famous DVD's you always hear about. I enjoyed that a lot, it was like being a kid in a candy store. I could have kept going on all the ones I wanted, but I only got 4: Edward Scissorhands, The Matrix, Millennium Actress (An anime), and Grave of the Firefly's (Another Anime). I made mental notes of the ones I wanted to get for next time, and hope they are still there the next time I go back. We wanted to get Blade Runner, but no such luck :(.

After this we parted ways; Doug and I headed over to the nearest grocery store which is called Carrefour, which happens to be a French owned chain of stores. There is a Walmart here, but it's farther away, and I don't even know where it's at. We bought some items and returned home. We watched the old Disney Robin Hood cartoon that Doug picked up at the DVD shop, and boy did that bring back memories. I love that show! We also watched some of Edward Scissorhands.

I attempted to go to sleep around midnight, but couldn't sleep... I tossed and turned all night, got up and Doug had made some breakfast. Some Jiao'zi which are some dumpling things (you have to try if you come here) and some bacon. I also had a little drink box of chocolate soy milk, which is actually really good. I'm looking forward to my Strawberry Soy Milk box tomorrow morning :). I ended up going to the teacher meeting or as the DOS likes to call it, workshop, that was held this morning - Doug on the other hand skipped out, he was feeling ill. Luckily when we got here, one of our co-workers gave us some Dayquil that he has his family members bring from the states when they visit... There is only like one dose left though, so I'm not sure what we'll be doing next. I spoke w/ Stoerm and Baaska for a bit on messenger (MSN) then returned home to give Doug his schedule for the day. I ended up falling asleep and got some much needed sleep. I only had to observe a class today, so it's a fairly light day for me today. We only work the next two days (Thursday and Friday), then we're off the next 5 days. Can't wait for that...

Just to let everyone know, I've given the address for this blog to not just family members, but also friends from various places (like work), so they probably will read this as well. Dad, if you could give the address to Pat, the email I had for him didn't go through - so I have no communication with him. I don't have emails for Holy/Cliff, Jason/Olivia or Becky either. I'm sure Grandma will provide those to them though - right Grandma? In case you didn't see if you look on the right side of this page under links there is a link to Doug's Blog as well, which you can simply click on to go there.

To answer a few questions that I remember from the comments... The food is pretty hit or miss, and varies from place to place. A lot of the food is very spicy, which I do not like, but also very good. I haven't had a lot of food though. There are also a lot of street vendors, similar to Mexico. Some sell noodles/rice, others sell these deep friend biscuit/doughnut things (which are really good), and others have these deep friend bread looking things that I haven't had yet. There are also people selling different types of fruit on the side, like lotus, grapes, tomatoes, onions, and things like that. They also have these very narrow but long bbq type places that bbq some sort of meat on a stick... I haven't had any of these either. There is a lot of food to choose from, and it can also be very cheap. You do need to be careful of what you eat though, as it can throw your stomach in a swirl...

Kevin, I know you sent Doug and I an email - I don't really have time to respond to it personally right now, but I *think* the "Great Firewall of China" has banned anything geocities related... You can't even access wikipedia here. Of course you know me, and I'm not going to say anything else about that in a public place :P. So I'm not sure if it's going to work out or not. Maybe if you found a different host.

Linda, I'm not sure about the shades... It would be a good idea though - thank you for that.

Grandma, I didn't go out with Doug because they all seem to just want to go to a bar and drink. It's very western of them, and it's not something I really enjoy. I also feel bad when I do go, because all these Chinese people are always wanting to drink with you, and since I don't drink I have to refuse, and then they're perturbed about it because I didn't accept their generosity. However, there are usually a lot of girls at the bars :). So I elected to stay home, especially since we had work the next day. Happy Birthday! Sorry I couldn't be there in person for it, but I hope you had a great time. I'm glad they showed up - some of the cake sounds wonderful... Do you remember that cake I had one year in the shape of a dog? Wasn't that fun! You'll need to fill me/us in on how your vacation went... I always like to hear about things like that. Tell Grandpa I said Hello, and that I hope things are going well for him too.

So all in all, things are well. Today was a pretty nice day weather wise. There was even a nice breeze... The winds here are also Eastern, which is different from the Northern/Southern winds back home...

Dad/Kevin/Linda - I'm so jealous you're going to go see Blue Man Group!!! We watched the DVD again the other day, and they're just phenomenal... Enjoy the show, I would be there if I could.

Well, I'm going to go home for the night and get some grub... Tell Mom that she's in my thoughts, and that we enjoyed the email she sent us (it only got sent to Doug, not me *sniff*) - I hope she will continue to do that from time to time, it really meant a lot, especially knowing she doesn't use a computer much... I was proud! :)

Take care all, and I'll update again tomorrow!
~Thomas Lane