Sunday, July 24, 2005
rainy days
i am sitting in this internet bar as i was twenty minutes ago. i tried to leave yet nature shut me in. there is an awe-ful thunderstorm occurring outside of these protective walls, but i figure it's just kunming saying hi. and that is what has really been happening the past couple of days, kunming and i have been getting acquainted. i was going to save this for a later time, but events have transpired to keep me locked in this town for a bit longer. i now have an apartment and a roommate, but no visa and currently no passport (thus the lockdown.) i want to get away already and i've only been living here a week plus, but that's just my travel itchiness. i'd been expecting to jump out into the wilderness of yunnan by now, but i'm still here. i did get to make a foray into hong kong which was a blast, but i'm still no closer to xishuangbanna or ruili or even back up to lijiang than i was in shanghai - exaggeration, yes, but still, i feel antsy. haven't even had any syrup to drink.
kyle's here with me too (yes tom, my roommate is named kyle, strange how circular life is, you passed off one of your roommates on me) and we were going to go see buddy down at the school to figure out our home internet situation and other shtuff, but doctor wu must have conjured up this magnificent storm to give himself time to get away. we went earlier in the day, but another teacher told us, "he was here, but now he's gone" in perfect english explaining that he'd be back at 230. low and behold, 230 on the dot, BOOM. CRASH. aaaand, i'm slightly wetter than before. hardly made it outta the door. the sky was blue and then ... not. i'm sure it'll be over in ten more minutes, like florida afternoon thunderstorms where you'd have about half an hour to go play ultimate frisbee while being rolled about in sheets of rain (funnest thing ever.) and then we can go tend to business. seems like i've been doing a lot of waiting here, not enough doing. dang visa and the like, messin up all my plans. pbthhhtt!
a couple of nights ago there was a great lightning storm that i watched from my bedroom window, throwing my arms in the air with impressive gestures, causing destruction from the heavens above to fall on those evil sinners below. lightning sprang from my will, thunder from my passion. the city trembled and knew that i was amongst it. i've been reading too much dostoevsky and now everything has religious overtones. but that's the life of the reader. read a book and watch the world change around you as your own perspective changes from the reading. i wouldn't read if it didn't affect me in some way. just wouldn't be that intristing.
i found a nice chinese typical good food restaurant right around the block. i mean, seriously, the back of this restaurant is in our compound, so if we could figure out a way to get in good with the cooks, we actually wouldn't have to leave our grounds to go eat. actually... we can order delivery as well, so we don't even have to go down the five flight of stairs and back up again if we're feeling ultra america-lazy. it's really good food, but kyle caught the china bug from it and had some digestive problems from the broth i think. ruff stuff that chinese bacteria, whatever it is. took me a couple of weeks to compensate bowelly in the beginning of my trip and i suspect he will have similar difficulties. so far, my guess that kunming cuisine might affect me adversely has been proven wrong, but i'm still waiting. i mean, what's life if you get to go through it without any mess? sure, it might smell nice, but there's definitely something missing. something... je ne c'est poop.
i've begun (slooooowly) translating a book that just came out in china written by a foreigner about jiang zemin. i'm translating word for word and that takes time. i figure it's something that will last me the entire year, but i'm also hoping that i have a slightly higher learning curve than i am guesstimating, so it might get done sooner. i also bought a version of wind in the willows that is translated into chinese along with the accompanying english version. that i'm not trying to really direct translate, just get the gist of the words and move through it. still, slow going. chinese, a most challenging language for me. here's to china.
i had a jidanbing this morning, something i haven't had in a while, and it was gooooooooooooood. kinda like an egg sandwich with crispy tofu and spice and salty brown sauce and chives and pickled somethingoranother. sgooooood. come to china, eat it, live it, become it. go china
uhoh, kyle's playing grand theft auto and it looks fun. i think i may join in, i mean, while the rain is pouring and all what else is there to do? don't answer that.
e
kyle's here with me too (yes tom, my roommate is named kyle, strange how circular life is, you passed off one of your roommates on me) and we were going to go see buddy down at the school to figure out our home internet situation and other shtuff, but doctor wu must have conjured up this magnificent storm to give himself time to get away. we went earlier in the day, but another teacher told us, "he was here, but now he's gone" in perfect english explaining that he'd be back at 230. low and behold, 230 on the dot, BOOM. CRASH. aaaand, i'm slightly wetter than before. hardly made it outta the door. the sky was blue and then ... not. i'm sure it'll be over in ten more minutes, like florida afternoon thunderstorms where you'd have about half an hour to go play ultimate frisbee while being rolled about in sheets of rain (funnest thing ever.) and then we can go tend to business. seems like i've been doing a lot of waiting here, not enough doing. dang visa and the like, messin up all my plans. pbthhhtt!
a couple of nights ago there was a great lightning storm that i watched from my bedroom window, throwing my arms in the air with impressive gestures, causing destruction from the heavens above to fall on those evil sinners below. lightning sprang from my will, thunder from my passion. the city trembled and knew that i was amongst it. i've been reading too much dostoevsky and now everything has religious overtones. but that's the life of the reader. read a book and watch the world change around you as your own perspective changes from the reading. i wouldn't read if it didn't affect me in some way. just wouldn't be that intristing.
i found a nice chinese typical good food restaurant right around the block. i mean, seriously, the back of this restaurant is in our compound, so if we could figure out a way to get in good with the cooks, we actually wouldn't have to leave our grounds to go eat. actually... we can order delivery as well, so we don't even have to go down the five flight of stairs and back up again if we're feeling ultra america-lazy. it's really good food, but kyle caught the china bug from it and had some digestive problems from the broth i think. ruff stuff that chinese bacteria, whatever it is. took me a couple of weeks to compensate bowelly in the beginning of my trip and i suspect he will have similar difficulties. so far, my guess that kunming cuisine might affect me adversely has been proven wrong, but i'm still waiting. i mean, what's life if you get to go through it without any mess? sure, it might smell nice, but there's definitely something missing. something... je ne c'est poop.
i've begun (slooooowly) translating a book that just came out in china written by a foreigner about jiang zemin. i'm translating word for word and that takes time. i figure it's something that will last me the entire year, but i'm also hoping that i have a slightly higher learning curve than i am guesstimating, so it might get done sooner. i also bought a version of wind in the willows that is translated into chinese along with the accompanying english version. that i'm not trying to really direct translate, just get the gist of the words and move through it. still, slow going. chinese, a most challenging language for me. here's to china.
i had a jidanbing this morning, something i haven't had in a while, and it was gooooooooooooood. kinda like an egg sandwich with crispy tofu and spice and salty brown sauce and chives and pickled somethingoranother. sgooooood. come to china, eat it, live it, become it. go china
uhoh, kyle's playing grand theft auto and it looks fun. i think i may join in, i mean, while the rain is pouring and all what else is there to do? don't answer that.
e
