As both my readers have now implored me to write something, here it is: I'm off travelling for the next three weeks, and hence shall probably only be able to update when I get back, but we'll see.
As for the recent silence, my apologies. I got out of the habit of blogging, and equally pertinently, lately the internet has been dreadful. I can no longer access my VPN from home, and hence this is posted from the safe haven of Starbucks. Without a VPN lately, it seems that almost every site not within China itself is subject to some interference. Getting into my gmail account has become a daily half hour battle, involving begging, pleading and screaming at my unfortunate laptop. Reading the news normally involves reloading the page three times every time I click a link. Getting through basic tasks, such as applying for a student loan, now occupy the majority of the time I spend on the internet.
Anyway, otherwise lately I have:
- laserquest battle in an old bunker once used in Russo-Japanese war near Lushun (Foreigners united 5, Chinese 0). Post laserquest, which was what most of us had come for, we were also treated to a tour of Lushun, and we got to hear all about how evil the Japanese were, again.
- walked 15 kilometres as part of a bizarre walking day event held in Dalian - just me, a Bermudan named Jeff, some of his friends and hundreds of thousands of Chinese.
- gained official sort of qualification in Chinese. I'll certainly need to take the HSK again sometime, but its a start.
- went dancing with my host sister, and discovered when the Chinese waltz, they start on the other foot. I started I as normally would, and promptly stood on the guy's toes. Ah well.
- successfully avoided falling out with my ayi, despite her cleanliness fetish resulting in a very loud bout of cleaning at 3am, thereby depriving me of sleep.
- travelled to Bingyugou, just outside Dalian, and went walking/horseriding, before being persuaded to dress up and have my photograph taken by a decidedly odd group of Chinese hikers from Harbin.
- read awesome collection of Chinese modern fairytales (lent to me courtesy of a friend) written by a guy who could give Lewis Carroll a run for his money (boy flies into sky on firecracker powered broomstick, accidentally discovers the clock which controls the world's time, speeds the clock up which caused the world to spin faster. on returning to earth he finds everyone asleep as the world is spinning too fast, and making them dizzy, and when he too falls asleep he finds everyone is now living through their dreams instead. He winds up fighting an epic battle against Major Strange and his evil minions Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-tea-do (Minister for Music), Bottomless Pit (Minister for Greed), and Not Yet Enough (Minister for Corruption). It was amazing. I miss reading children's books.)
There is undoubtedly much more. However, I need to go catch a train to Beijing now.
As for the recent silence, my apologies. I got out of the habit of blogging, and equally pertinently, lately the internet has been dreadful. I can no longer access my VPN from home, and hence this is posted from the safe haven of Starbucks. Without a VPN lately, it seems that almost every site not within China itself is subject to some interference. Getting into my gmail account has become a daily half hour battle, involving begging, pleading and screaming at my unfortunate laptop. Reading the news normally involves reloading the page three times every time I click a link. Getting through basic tasks, such as applying for a student loan, now occupy the majority of the time I spend on the internet.
Anyway, otherwise lately I have:
- laserquest battle in an old bunker once used in Russo-Japanese war near Lushun (Foreigners united 5, Chinese 0). Post laserquest, which was what most of us had come for, we were also treated to a tour of Lushun, and we got to hear all about how evil the Japanese were, again.
- walked 15 kilometres as part of a bizarre walking day event held in Dalian - just me, a Bermudan named Jeff, some of his friends and hundreds of thousands of Chinese.
- gained official sort of qualification in Chinese. I'll certainly need to take the HSK again sometime, but its a start.
- went dancing with my host sister, and discovered when the Chinese waltz, they start on the other foot. I started I as normally would, and promptly stood on the guy's toes. Ah well.
- successfully avoided falling out with my ayi, despite her cleanliness fetish resulting in a very loud bout of cleaning at 3am, thereby depriving me of sleep.
- travelled to Bingyugou, just outside Dalian, and went walking/horseriding, before being persuaded to dress up and have my photograph taken by a decidedly odd group of Chinese hikers from Harbin.
- read awesome collection of Chinese modern fairytales (lent to me courtesy of a friend) written by a guy who could give Lewis Carroll a run for his money (boy flies into sky on firecracker powered broomstick, accidentally discovers the clock which controls the world's time, speeds the clock up which caused the world to spin faster. on returning to earth he finds everyone asleep as the world is spinning too fast, and making them dizzy, and when he too falls asleep he finds everyone is now living through their dreams instead. He winds up fighting an epic battle against Major Strange and his evil minions Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-tea-do (Minister for Music), Bottomless Pit (Minister for Greed), and Not Yet Enough (Minister for Corruption). It was amazing. I miss reading children's books.)
There is undoubtedly much more. However, I need to go catch a train to Beijing now.
No comments:
Post a Comment