My blog is getting spammed like crazy every day.
I get loads and loads of comments about stuff that I really don’t care to get messages about. Ugh.
Good thing I moderate all the comments before they go up otherwise you’d see 29 comments a day about getting cheap prescription drugs.

In other news, my Nanning photos are now up. Huzzah for that! I’m actually keeping up to date on one small part of my life.

Next week Kyle and I are going to Vietnam for a few days. I’ve managed to rearrange three of my classes so this week I don’t have my usual Friday off and next week I don’t have my usual Monday off. I’ve got classes all morning tomorrow and then afternoon on Monday. However, it’ll be worth it to have an extra day in Hanoi.
I’m really excited. I thought Hanoi was quite lovely last year, but there were a few things we missed…well, many things that we missed. It’ll be great to get to see what we didn’t see before.

As far as things go here, we’ve got what apparently seems to be Yizhou’s spring right now. It’s a strange mix of heavy rain, cloudy skies, and warm sunshine. Sometimes one of those will stick around, but often we get all three in a day which is, to say the least, confusing.
However, it can stick around for as long as it wants! I definitely prefer this to the summer weather that’s just around the corner.

Two posts in two days!
Now I’m making progress.

It’s yet another dreary type of day here. Last week it was all sunshine and cerulean skies peppered with white, fluffy clouds. As soon as Thursday afternoon crept up on us, so did the rainclouds. Most days since then (it’s Monday afternoon here) have been plagued with gray skies, sprinkles, and showers. Naturally, this is the kind of weather that is conducive to staying indoors and getting things done…right?

Alas, it is not always so for me. Somehow, I find the endless thick clouds distracting and melancholy. Therefore, instead of staying in and actually making progress, I’m staring at book covers and pondering the existence of the word “towards”. (That dilemma is solved, thanks to my trusty friend www.dictionary.com- Usage Note: Some critics have tried to discern a semantic distinction between toward and towards, but the difference is entirely dialectal. Toward is more common in American English; towards is the predominant form in British English.)

There are things to be planned and finished. There are things to be sent, taken care of, and applied for. I am certainly well aware of these things. They eat at my inner stomach lining like soft, black leeches with sharp teeth. I know I need to take care of them, but I just can’t seem to get myself to move. Perhaps this is what it feels like to be a sloth in a tree. (I was always terrified those creatures as a child…photos in science books made them look mean and dirty)

The cracks in my bedroom floor tiles are getting worse. You know, I’m not sure I’ve mentioned them before. Sometime last term, a tile developed a crack. Then it began to spread. When I came back from the holiday, the tiles had begun to move up as though some force was putting pressure on them from below. It’s really quite strange. Mary (co-teacher/friend/waiban-foreign affairs assistant) was over here today to take a look at it, so I’m expecting that it’ll get fixed sometime in the near future. It’s certainly not life-threatening, so I’m not terribly bothered about it, to be honest. Mostly I just think it’ll get worse and it’ll be more work for the school if I just let it go. For now, I just avoid those two tiles (which are unfortunately directly behind the chair I’m sitting in at the moment.

Here’s a sign of how behind I’ve gotten with my emails. My dear friend Cynthia sent me a link to download some music ages ago (I honestly don’t know the exact date) and I didn’t bother to download them until last week and I didn’t even get a chance to listen to the album until today.
I’ve certainly been missing out. It’s an album by Alela Diane called “The Pirate’s Gospel” and it’s absolutely fantastic. Highly recommended. Perhaps a bit behind the times, but recommended nonetheless.
Now playing: Alela Diane - The Pirate’s Gospel
via FoxyTunes

I just got word that a fellow Amity teacher was “was injured in an unfortunate encounter with a dog” recently. He’s now in the hospital being treated and he got the lovely rabies injections. Ugh! Scary thought. I suppose I ought to be more careful than I am currently when it comes to animals.

I think I’ll end this post with a photo from my trip in Sumatra as a tribute to sunnier days.

Hello!

I’m in some random city in Malaysia now…we’re waiting for a bus and I needed to find the internet to send a happy birthday text message to my dad.

Anyway, this has been great so far.
Malaysia is fantastic and tropical and full of various people and an incredible variety of food. I love it! I haven’t had this many food options since I was back home. Absolutely amazing.

We were in Kuala Lumpur for a while where we visited mosques, the sky bridge at the big towers, and did some general wandering around.

Last night we went to a little town where there were, to our surprise, wild monkeys! Just running around! I’ve never seen wild monkeys before.
Although Kyle did just find this terrifying article- check it out.
Then we went on a boat ride at night and saw thousands and thousands of fireflies. Absolutely gorgeous.

Now we’re hopefully on our way to some little island where we can relax by a beach…as long as we can find a hotel with rooms. We’ll see how this works out.

Thanksgiving has come and gone…

I spent lots of time shopping, cooking, and baking on Thursday.
Thankfully, people came early enough that everyone could lend a hand when it came to putting it all together.

We had wine, juice, chicken (we bought it already cooked), cornbread, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, honey glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, stuffing, bread, salad, cookies, brownies, pumpkin bars, apple crumble, and my biggest accomplishment- pumpkin pie. It was my first ever attempt at pie crust or any kind of pie. I don’t have any real measuring tools, so I just had to guess at amounts, and I also have a tiny toaster oven- not really the ideal size for pies! I’m not going to lie- it turned out pretty well, I think.

So Thanksgiving was great. There were 8 people over here and we ate lots and talked even more. I had a fantastic time.

Today, our regional conference began. The meetings and such are all starting tomorrow, but everyone arrived, had dinner, and then went out to Liu San Jie Square this evening.

The Square has changed a lot since last year, as has all of Yizhou, but I think I’ll save that for a later post. They still have bumper cars though, so that’s a load of fun. I’m terrible at driving those things!! I’m glad that Kyle was willing to drive. It was a good time.

Anyway, so we went out for tea, coffee, and juice afterwards and it was a good time. However, Kate and I were really enjoying ourselves and she hadn’t even finished her drink when everyone decided it was time to go, so we headed out. Unfortunately, I really really really enjoy having lots of people to talk to- but since we’re hosting the conference, we stay at home and they all stay in a hotel. I have to say that I’m really quite depressed that they all get to hang out in the hotel and talk while I came back here alone, like most other nights. I’m now used to having this apartment to myself, but for the most part, I don’t enjoy that. I like being with other people a lot. I’m on a strange line between extrovert and introvert…I don’t like being the center of attention at all, I like to avoid that, but I feel happy being involved with a group of people and I have discovered in the past year that I actually get incredibly offended and sad (no matter how hard I try to control these emotions!) when I feel as though people are having a good time while I’m alone and not enjoying being by myself. It is, I know, something that I need to adjust to, and for the most part I have. I just feel like a blog on the internet is somewhere that I can vent these frustrations. I don’t know why I think that, but whatever.

I’m full of energy after spending time with people all day and not ready to sleep at all, so I’m making the brownies that we need for our snack during our meeting tomorrow. Kate and I forgot to bake them earlier today, so I figured I’d just do it now since I can’t sleep at the moment.

Tomorrow morning, I’ve got to get up and prepare some things for breakfast and bake some blueberry muffins.
After this weekend, Thanksgiving and the conference will be over and I’m pretty sure I’ll have used up all of the baking mixes I have here. That’s kind of a disappointment because I can’t get any more in Yizhou.
However, it’s great to be able to share good meals with other people. It makes it even more enjoyable, I think.
I love the combination of good people and good food. You really can’t often go wrong with that.

P.S. In the market today, I saw them grab a dog by the neck with some metal thing and grab a bag- they beat the dogs to death in a bag before preparing them for cooking. I almost cried. I know the dogs are for eating, but I’ve never watched one as it’s about to be killed. Absolutely heartbreaking.
I suppose I feel that way about all animals, but I don’t often see them as they’re about to reach their end- especially in such an utterly brutal way.
I will never forget that.

They do eats dogs in China.

They especially them them down here in Guangxi.

At the market, I often play with the little puppies. The big dogs I leave alone. They look sad and as though they are treated cruelly.

It wasn’t until recently that I discovered that even the little pups are eaten.

Disgusting, but terribly true.
I have gotten used to the meat and whole animal carcasses for sale at the market, but I still am disturbed by the juxtaposition of the live animals sharing close quarters with the dead of their same species.

I forgot to mention in the previous post…
When I was visiting Melinda at her teaching practice, I asked her when she was going to be home again and when I could visit my little kitten, Maeby.

She informed me of some terrible news.

Apparently Maeby went missing a couple of days ago.

I’m really quite sad about this. I know that she didn’t live in my apartment (not since the flea incident at least!), but I visited her at least once a week and it was really great to have my own little kitten to play with and to watch as she got bigger and bigger.
So if anyone in southern China sees a little calico cat with a red collar and a bell, please catch her!

I hope she comes back….

As I was biking out the gate today, the guards at the front gate tried to stop me and the pointed out a sign that said (forgive me if I’m missing a bit, but I believe this was it):
出人下车
I’m pretty sure that means that I have to get off my bike to exit. However, I was already going at pretty good speed and I just said “Wo bu dong!” (I don’t understand) and then they laughed at me and let me through anyway. The guards at the back gate weren’t so forgiving though. They seemed to know that I knew, so I got off and walked my bike in.

However, it is terribly frustrating to live in a country where I’m practically illiterate. I’d really like to be able to learn more. The unfortunate part is that my lack of literacy is largely due to an excessive amount of slacking on my part. More of then than not, I just don’t feel up to it! It’s a ridiculous excuse, but it’s the one I give myself when I put my Chinese textbook back after 5 minutes of looking it over. I’ve really got to make myself work on Chinese this year.
I was looking at a blog of one of my friends from high school. She’s in Morocco now and she spent a year in Paris before. Some of the things she said were very true. Knowing other languages really opens doors in life. It gives you many opportunities that you wouldn’t have otherwise. I’d like to become at least conversational in Chinese and I’d like to study French again because I’ve forgotten nearly all of it. (My French prof at Hope was right when I quit- “Ce n’est pas une bonne idée”. I should have listened.)
Hopefully, when I’m back in the States, I can find somewhere to study, or at least practice one (or both) of those languages.

In other news, I’ve finally found a place with fun drinks that I like. Back home we have Bubble Tea (called Pearl Tea some places) and usually you can get black bubbles or colored ones. I, personally, think that the black ones taste horrid. Unfortunately, that was all they had here. Until a new shop came in over the summer. And at this shop, I can get this delicious grape juice (a great alternative to the usual tea mixed with milk). I’m really happy about it and Kate and I both really enjoy it.

Also, a bit of sadness over my former “roommate”.
I’m sure I had told several of you about a little gecko who had taken up residence here at the start of term. He’d always come out at night, but during the day he would find little hiding places. His favorite seemed to be in the crack of the door. This caused me to be incredibly cautious whenever closing or opening any door.
Unfortunately, Friday morning, I left the bathroom door open a tiny crack while I took my shower; I guess it just hadn’t latched right or something. Anyway, I got out of the shower and then the door swung in, then back out. My little gecko friend must have snuck in the crack when I wasn’t looking because then he fell- plop!- right onto the floor in a puddle of water. I quickly picked him up out of the water only to discover that his back legs had been irreparably smashed. Poor fellow.

Yesterday, Kate went out to the bank with Mary. On the way back, she said that she and Mary saw a motorbike with a cage crammed full of puppies.
Apparently Mary said “Megan would like that.”
Which, of course, knowing me, Kate thought was particularly strange to say. She figured, though, that Mary simply meant that I would like to see all of those puppies.
I have told Mary before that I like to go to the market and play with the puppies that are going to be sold for food. It makes me feel sad, but they’re so cute and it breaks my heart to see them stuck inside a cage.
Then, Kate said that Mary said “Megan is even kind to swerms”.
When Kate told me this story, I was trying to figure out what on earth was meant by “swerms”. I couldn’t think of what on earth that could be! Kate apparently had the same problem, but then Mary used her finger to demonstrate a snake-like creature. After that, Kate realized that Mary meant worms!
I guess Mary must have been around at some point when I tried to save a giant worm from drowning. After heavy rains, they are often all over the sidewalk and I can’t help it- frequently I try to save the poor things from death. They are huge here though- sometimes they seem more like small snakes than worms.
So perhaps from now on, Kate and I will just call the giant worms “swerms”.

This morning, I was sitting downstairs outside of my apartment eating my breakfast- a funny pastry filled with strawberry filling and a pumpkin cake-type thing. While I was eating, I was reading ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’. Underneath the building, there is a garage for motorbikes and bicycles. A couple came downstairs and went to leave on their motorcycles- the woman got hers started and headed off. However, the man was having a bit of trouble; he couldn’t seem to get it started. Eventually even the guard came over and was trying to help him out, but it was no good.
I just found it particularly ironic that I am reading a book that talks quite a bit about maintenance and repair of motorcycles (as well as many other things) and there’s a motorcycle in front of me that’s having trouble and I don’t know a thing about how to help.

In church this morning, I took a closer look at the bulletin for our weekly service. At the bottom, I noticed some addresses and websites. One of my freshmen students also goes to church and he happened to be sitting next to me. I turned to him and asked what those were.
“It’s an email address,” he said.
“Right, but for who?” I asked.
He looked at me and said very confidently: “Jesus Christ.”

I probably should have just taken that in stride, but I’m sorry, I couldn’t. I burst out laughing. He quickly corrected himself and said that he meant to say the Chinese Church.
It was certainly the most amusing point of my entire day.
So apparently the church in Yizhou has a website. I’ve been checking it out; it’s really quite interesting. Granted, I can’t read much. I’ve used Babelfish Translator to get some of it, but the translations are fairly inaccurate and comical. It’s certainly worth a look though.

I’m currently listening to a podcast that Kyle sent me. It’s a discussion between John Mackey (One of the founders of Whole Foods) and Michael Pollan (author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma). (I’ve linked John Mackey’s blog Michael Pollan’s site there, but Pollan’s doesn’t seem to work working- maybe someone outside of China can tell me if they can get it)
It’s an incredibly long podcast- nearly two hours. However, I thought I’d mention it because it’s incredibly interesting.
Personally, I’m a fan of Whole Foods- I really enjoyed shopping there when I lived in Philadelphia. I felt much more informed about what I was eating and where it was coming from when I shopped there compared to the grocery stores back home.
Anyway, I won’t bore you with details. If you’re interested in listening to this (I suggest that you give it a try), you can get it on mp3here.
It actually talks a little bit about organic food from China, which is something I’ve been doing a considerable amount of online research on lately.
Unfortunately, despite my strong feelings on animal rights and organic food production, there’s not a whole lot that I can do about my food choices in China.