So its 12:30am and I should definitely be sleeping considering I have to get up at 7. But I am awake for three reasons:
1. I had to mark 45 two page tests.
2. The nightly mosquito hunt has gone on longer than usual.
3. I'm becoming unhealthily addicted to Starcraft 2 (this is mostly the reason)
Blog instead? My thoughts exactly. Let me update you on the last few days.
On Saturday I did my first real touristy type thing since being in Wuhan. Me and another teacher decided to go to East Lake, which is the biggest lake within a city in all of China. It was about a 30 minute cab ride away so I went to meet the other teacher up at Xudong and then we set off with my trusty Ipod map guiding the way. I've gotten into the recent habit of getting around by pointing to my destination on my Ipod. Which sometimes works and sometimes ,like the last time i took a cab home, fails miserably. But it is a hell of alot better than trying to pronounce "Wo xiang yao qu Nan Hu Hua Yuen Xie Xie, Hao ma?" which i usually have to say to get myself home.
When we pulled up the main gate I was excited to see the amount of trees and how quiet it seemed to be in this part of the city. We walked around the lake for about 3 hours. There are many paths and walkways to go down as well as a bunch of random amusement rides and restaurants on the water. It was beautiful. The picture above I took standing on a dock just before we took a boat ride. The man stopped us and wanted to take us for 50 kuai, so I laughed at him and kept walking. He lowered the price and I agreed. My first successful haggle in China. We got in the boat not knowing what to expect. This man turned out to think he was in some sort of Jackie Chan movie and decided to pull crazy stunts in the motor boat and scare the hell out of us. The ride lasted maybe 5 minutes and I was kind of upset about the fact that I just payed 40 kuai for a 5 minute boat ride. Here I was thinking I got a deal. Anyways we continued walking and saw huge ponds of lotus, alot of pagodas and on the other side of the lake we could even see Chairman Mao's private villa where he stayed in the summer. Next time I go to East Lake i'm going to for sure check it out.
In our 3 hours of walking we barely saw half the stuff there is to see on the lake. You can take a boat across and go to a zoo where they have Pandas apparently. On a side note I taught a kid named Panda on the weekend. I really couldn't contain my excitement upon learning his name. Off topic. I posted a few pictures of East lake as well as the massive mall we visited after on my flickr site. www.flickr.com/photos/coreyinchina
When I say massive, this is in Chinese terms I'm talking. They build everything massive. Perhaps trying to compensate for..... yes.. So this thing had 6 floors, an arcade, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, a movie theatre, basketball nets and tons of things i can't read. The food we got in said shopping mall was the cause of the second title of this blog, sickness.
After eating saturday night I woke up Sunday with a bad fever and a terrible stomach ache. I was yet to get sick so I was wondering when that would happen. It seems inevitable when getting used to new food, air and an incredible lack of cleanliness in China. Oh I forgot to mention I also was supposed to teach on Sunday. We have a holiday on Wednesday so you'd think, well thats nice the kids and teachers get a 4 day week. But China doesn't lose education over silly holidays. They work there kids straight into the ground. In protest and in sickness I decided to take the day off. My grade 4's were just reviewing for a test anyways and It would do my grade 5's good to just go over what I taught them last week. Which was about Boy scouts and Cub scouts, by the way, for some strange reason they think that it is an important part of learning english.
I lied around all day yesterday and finally recovered so today I went back to work feeling a little better.
Now let me explain my nightly ritual to you all. The great mosquito hunt. I had no idea China would have so many at night time.
The first few nights here I would just sleep with the blanket over my head and hide but I apparently have an annoying need to breathe oxygen (if you could call chinese air that.) I keep all my doors and windows closed all day so I know there is only a set amount of mosquitoes present each night. If I get all of them before bed I will have a peaceful sleep. If not, then one little bastard will bite me constantly all night while I flail helplessly in the dark.
So i turn on all my lights and stand in the middle of my room, usually half naked, and I wait. I stand perfectly still and see If i can see any flying around or lure any towards me. If that doesn't draw them out I go and shake all my clothes on the floor and my blankets. I can't explain to you how smart chinese mosquitoes are. I've seen them hide behind things when i turn the light on, land and disguise themselves against dark things, or hide under my bed until I am not looking. Mosquitoes back home seem to hover around you aimlessly but these things hit and run. Maybe they are tiny robots controlled by the government. Who knows but I need to do something about them. My hunts aren't usually 100% successful. I bought some sort of mosquito repellant thing that plugs but because I can't read chinese I failed to realize I needed to buy the fluid for It also. So annoying.
Since I started writing this blog, Corey: 2 kills Mosquitoes: 8 bites
Anyways, tomorrow I don't have to go to work but I still have to get up early. Me and some of the other teachers who arrived late are going to the police station to get our residency permits. Actually I don't have to work for the next two days because like I said Wednesday is a holiday. Awesome. So goodnight everybody, hope all is well on the other side of the world.
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