Breaking The Shackles

Ah not just one new post but TWO! It must be a miracle... I guess I should explain that I usually update my blog from the internet cafe that we frequent, however, they've decided to not allow anyone in the cafe to access It just gives you a page cannot be displayed sign. To make matters worse, the Chinese government has blocked blogspot.com sites. So that means no one in China can access a blog site. So I managed to find a way to get around the latter problem, but I haven't been able to get around the former one. You see, I can get logged into blogger, but once I go to post a new post - it doesn't allow me too. It's become very annoying, and that's a problem.

So what's the solution? Well I either pay for a service to allow me to do this, or simply do it from the school, like Doug has been. Here in lies the problem with that, you see Doug gets here early almost everyday, I don't like to be here THAT early, so I never have the extra time to do it. So expect posts even less often now... Although, time permitting, this one should be rather long.

Well, I guess I should start off by saying that it's become cold in Wuhan. In our apartment at night with the windows closed in the living room, it's 19°C which is about 66°F... That's with the window CLOSED! Yikes! I do like the cold weather, however I've gotten ill w/ a cold and it's taking it's toll on me. I feel horrible right now, my throat is raw, my head is stuffed up, and all sorts of other ickiness. Well I hope to be feeling better soon.

I have a really really really big decision to make very soon, and it's something that's been on my mind every free moment. That is if I'm going to go home or not. You see, we're on our probation period right now which lasts for 3 months. So September 3rd - December 3rd. During this time period, one only needs to provide a seven days notice in order to leave, instead of a thirty-day notice after the probational period. Have things gotten better here? Nope, not really. We had a meeting w/ the Director of the "school" who he himself said it was a business (something I kept saying) after all, and the main pursuit is to make money. So that there confirmed my suspicions. So I feel as though I'm simply wasting my time WORKING here. Being in China is pretty cool, albeit frustrating at times due to the huge language barriers. Yea, I've brought this up before in previous articles, but it's still on my mind. Everyone has thrown their 2 cents in on what they think I should do, but it's still a problem. Enough on this topic, as I think I've give it way too much attention already.

Ola, the girl Doug is into, has been bringing over her friends lately, and it appears that they have interests in me. One of them is very shy, the other appears to be pretty talkative. I feel as though I could enter a relation ship with one of them, but if I'm to be leaving soon, I don't want to do that to them. So this has caused a conflict which adds more to my plate already.

A week or so ago I went to a traditional Tea house, and met with one of Stoerm's friends. She knew of my dissatisfaction with the job and wanted to offer another avenue. So I met with them, and I don't think I'll be doing it. There are several reasons for this, but I think that's the best decision in the end. It's another teaching job, and I really don't want to teach anymore.

I fell asleep last night with all my clothes on (including socks), and I woke up with them still all on. I didn't sleep very well last night, and I even took Robitussin, of course I don't know if it's a night or day formula as it's all in Chinese, but the first ingredient is DXM. Doug came in the middle of the night and turned my light off and shut my door, that was nice of him to do. But I had to walk to work today, and it's raining, and we don't have any umbrella's so now I'm wet too. Not a good combination. I'm expecting to wake up even sicker tomorrow.

I've been looking at laptops, and I'm having a hard time finding what I want. I want a 15.4" Screen, I want a Core 2 Duo processor w/ the 4MB of cache not the 2MB, and I want a 3d graphics board in it. I also want it to have decent battery life, and not weight a ton. Last, and it certainly doesn't really matter that much, I'd like it to be aesthetically pleasing. I've got a few candidates though, the first one being an alienware. Alienware has always been a prestigious company known for their high-end "gaming" platforms, but they were recently purchased by dell. So they've started to offer lower-end computers, and I don't know how the quality has been. I've read mixed opinions on The second option I thought of would be a power notebook - Stoerm has one and he loves it. A smaller company, but they don't look the best - although looks are the least important. Finally I was thinking about a mac book (non-pro) yea it's 13", yea it has on board video, but it can run both operating systems! The other option is I could move up to a 17" screen and then I have many options. But I just think that 17" on a laptop is just too big. They're even starting to make 19" laptops now, and I don't quite see the point. That's just me though, perhaps I'm in the minority. Although all that doesn't matter for awhile if I'm to be breaking the contract, as I'll have to pay some fees back, and maybe even buy my own plane ticket.

It saddens me that I will not be able to attend Thanksgiving dinner. I really liked this dinner, and it didn't hit me as to how much I liked it until recently. My birthday is coming up, and I'm not even looking forward to it.

So as you can see, nothing has changed with me, I'm still the same 'ol Tom.