Its almost Christmas

Sorry I have not updated this is a while. There has not been all that much going on besides the usual and I have been lazy. That being said there have been a few things. First, last week I caught an awful cold that lasted for a few days and gave me a decent excuse to not go to class for two days. Partly connected to that incident, I started watching Chinese television. This includes but is not limited to:

Cartoons- some Chinese and some American, but all in Chinese

American (English) movies dubbed in Chinese- so far parts golden eye of sister act and parts of a few others

Chinese game shows- including a Chinese version of price is right and a few physical/skill testing shows that make fun of the common Chinese person’s physical ability

That is most of them, but there are also a few more like Beijing Opera and really bad music videos. I have slightly convinced myself that having these on while I study will be good for my Chinese, but I kind of doubt it. Nonetheless, they are great for a laugh.

In addition to having a cold, I also managed to scald myself. The story goes: Jason and I went to a friend’s house for dinner. He made spaghetti for us and we arrived just before he finished cooking. He turned off the noodles and grabbed the plastic strainer. Handing it to me, he asked if I would hold it over the sink. I listened to him, because I clearly was not thinking.

Fortunately the steam from the recently boiling water pouring through the strainer did not burn me. Unfortunately, when the last bit of water and noodles were poured from the pot they did not land in the strainer. Instead they landed on my left hand. I instantly ran cold water on it and for the rest of the evening kept meat or frozen goods on it, but the damage was done. We spent the rest of the night gorging on spaghetti and assorted other foods and talking. To help the pain we drank some of Jason’s mead, most of my bottle of Jameson and two bottles of French wine.

The majority of the burn is on my ring finger from just below the first knuckle on the finger almost to the next knuckle. It also is on my pinky finger around the first knuckle and on one spot on my thumb, though the worst is in on my ring finger where it extends for about an inch and a half. The morning after the incident, I awoke to find to large blisters. The larger of which was almost the size of a dime. Since then it has gotten better, though it will take a while to heal.

In last day or so the pattern from the strainer has become more prominent, which makes me very curious as to what it will look like when it heels. This is by far the worst burn that I can remember having, but at least it is just on my already scared hands. Maybe, because of the strainer, I will end up with something pretty? Like a scar resembling something drawn by a small child with a very limited section of stencils. It’s almost like one of those eggs that I had as a child. You know, the blue, green, yellow, or red small eggs/tablets that you would throw into water to see what would burst out as the shell/capsule dissolved. The only difference is, when all is said and done, my finger will not look like my favorite dinosaur or sea creature.

Other than that everything has been pretty mundane. We are getting close to the end of the term here and I have Chinese tests for the next few days and am finished on Friday. I doubt that I will do very well on my exams, because I am still behind the other students. If I had it to do over I would not have enrolled at this university and instead would have tried to find a smaller private school that would have started at the beginning for me. I have noticed that while I have learned a lot, I am missing many basic things that make basic communication difficult. Oh well, though I have learned and I will continue to learn wherever we go next.

Speaking of which, I am only going to be in Harbin until the 2^nd of January! Next week I will put together a bag to travel with and pack up the rest of my things. I will either drop them at a friend’s house for storage or take them with me to be stored with someone in the South, because Jason and I are determined to live somewhere different when we come back from our break. Harbin has been alright, but we want someplace more vibrant, more exciting and also it would be nice if it was warmer.

Break for Jason for about seven weeks but I get out a week earlier than Jason, giving me about two months. Our break is longer than most, but most Chinese will get at least a week or more off to go home for Chinese New year. This year the actual day is January 26^th. So our plans are rough but we do have a few plane tickets to give us direction. Go to this link to follow along with the itinerary below and see a places of interest.

January 2^nd - I fly from Harbin to Beijing and Beijing to Kunming, Yunnan. From Kunming I will take a train and a bus south to reach and cross the border into Laos. I am going to Laos primarily because I need to leave China because of my visa, but I am staying for about a week because Laos sounds pretty great. I am not sure what I will do, but a UN World Heritage Site maybe in my future. If anyone has any good information let me know. All I know is that I will probably stay in northern part of the country because I will only be there for a week.

January 9^thish – Jason will fly from Beijing to Kunming. He may be in Beijing for a few days prior to this depending on how quickly he decides to leave Harbin. We will meet up in the next couple days, depending ground travel times and where we meet up. Depending on how cool Kunming is, I may meet Jason there or we may meet up in the area near the border, because we have heard that there are some really beautiful and interesting places there.

After we meet up we will spend the next few weeks traveling wherever we want for how ever long, while eventually working our way to Guiyang, Guizhou. We will honestly stay in a place for as long as it is interesting and then move on. We have heard of a few fun things to do such as hikes and cool cities, but we do not have any firm plans besides our next plane ticket.

January 29^th - We fly out of Guiyang headed for Xi’an, Shaanxi in central China, to stay with one of Jason’s Chinese roommates from the summer. I am not sure what is planned for our stay but I am sure that it will be great since we will have such an awesome tour guide.

January 8^th - We fly from Xi’an to Guangzhou, Guangdong in the South. From here it gets a little fuzzy. We will meet up with a few of Jason’s friends from Pomona and maybe a friend of mine from Bellingham. Our only obligation after this flight is to get Jason to Hong Kong for a Fulbright meeting that starts on March 3^rd.

My goals for the trip are:
1) Have fun and enjoy China
2) Practice my spoken Chinese (this will be inevitable)
3) Eat lots of good, spicy, Southern Chinese food.
4) Take lots of pictures (because I have not been taking very many so far)
5) Setup/figure out where we are going to live next. This means finding a project, another university, or a contact.
6) Meet up with Amy G!

Also, as promised here is a link to the tiger park pictures as well as a few others on my brother’s site. Here is a clothed dancer at a new bar that we went to a week ago, another one, and some that are really good.

On behalf of the industrial art planners of the city of Haerbin and myself, I wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!