Mr. Condom

Mr. Condom . . .

The name makes me think of a 1940's radio jingle, but the image makes me wonder what someone was thinking. I have never seen a condom machine so colourfully decorated with cartoons. Though I'm not sure that I oppose the idea. A happy reference to something both safe and happy can't be all that bad, can it? I wonder what's inside his closed fist?

In other dirty news, my roomate Paul had some interesting news that tops my story about the road rage I witnessed 2 weeks ago; 2 men pulled up beside a taxi waiting at the lights of a busy intersection. They got out, approached the driver, who was unaware of the coming assault.

anyway ...

Pauls story certainly tops mine. He noticed a lonely taxi driver fail at keeping both hands on the wheel. I'll let you figure out what that means.

Photo: An empty but full icon by day. Hero by night.

Bie Kan Wo!

2 years, and some things are the same, but I guess the things that I assumed had changed have likely become things I simply don't notice anymore.

What I mean is, when I first arrived here in China in October of 2006, it felt like everyone stared at me, and critically analyzed me. Now, it feels like some of that has changed. Perhaps its true, and that I am at a level of comfort that emanates from me, and therefore recieve less occular attention.

Regardless, children still seem fascinated by me, as well as every taxi driver, who seem to enjoy themselves by rambling on when I convey that I don't understand him (a partial truth). Sometimes, I find that I get tired trying to understand while having to sift through their accents and words, while suffering their body oder. It brings to mind the differences between henan dialect and mandarin, and seems to be a reliable end of a usual sequence with my gazing out the window, or sending text messages on my cell.

Today I stayed home to relax, clean the apartment and give my kittens a bath. I found that clipping their claws before the bath, works wonders for my blood ... =)

Well, they aren't that bad, it's only under the water when they try to seek safety. I just wish they went to the floor instead of up my chest and onto my shoulder when they panic.

Has anyone else been following the BBC show Merlin? I finished watching season 1 and 2 of the Showtime show Dexter a few weeks ago. Good stuff! Photo: Open manhole cover. Not so dangerous during the day.

You smell funny.

File size: 5.95mb Format: .avi

I had planned on attending a meeting at a school in Zhengzhou called English Model this morning, but I had to change my plans to meet with another school near my apartment. The meeting at English Model was voluntary, and not at all requested by them, but I had expressed that I would attend, and neglected to contact them to let them know of the change. Bad Mike!

This afternoon, I taped the 15 meter line for my internet to the corners of the floor in the next room, along the floor of the room the wall-jack is in, and around the doorway of my room. Now sweeping and mopping will be a little easier, and there is less risk of merciless cat destruction of my interweb cable (although they rarily bother with it anyway).

After that, Paul and I went shopping. I picked up two soft cushions for Sugar and Pepper since winter is coming and I wake up with them curled around me. Other items I picked up were a 2nd litterbox, some eggs, and fresh litter for both litterboxes.

Paul picked up some tuna in one of those huge cans, and I added it to the rice he made in our new fangled rice-cooker (plus 4 hardboiled eggs). Sugar and Pepper went wild for the tuna. I think it is their second time having it. It's been a few hours since they explored the new litterbox, kneeded the cushions, and consumed the tuna. Now they're unusually quiet.

Is this all I have to talk about? What an uneventful day ...

Photo: NO PHOTO FOR YOU!
Video: Chris laughing as I rolled down a hill strapped to the interior of a big ball. What wasn't captured in the video was my "Oh ... oh SHIIIIIiiiiiiiii ... ". Video was taken in early summer of 2007.

Totally sharky...complete!

File size: 3mb Format: .3gp (Quicktime)

Yes, I have returned.

I haven't started studying at university yet, work got in the way I could say. The trouble was that I had to switch employers and negotiations took longer than expected. Doing business here has it's ... interesting quirks.

In February, myself and my friend/roomate/colleague are investing in a new consultant firm. This plan started early summer. The company will offer many services but all related to foreign language learning. I'm quite excited, but will not divulge my unique business plan publicly, ... yet ;)

I'm looking forward to it, as well as being free to travel back to Canada each year. In my life, China has become as much of a home to me as Canada, and I expect to spend time in both. Once everything is securely underway, I will continue studying Chinese, but in Zhengzhou University. This time, work will not interfere. This should allow for us to work less, study more, and visit our homelands more.

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and family! Eat lots of turkey stuffing!

Video: Sugar and Pepper. I feed them every three days, spared them the agony of all those vaccinations, and this is how they repay me, by acting crazy.

7 Days

I lost my bank card...

Though I applied for a new one, I'm told it will take 7 days. I'm a little surprised that it will take that long to transfer my funds to a new account. I'm also surprised, as I need my funds Monday (3 days) to pay the deposit and 3 months rent on my new apartment. It's a good thing I'm getting my pay on Monday, in cash. =)

More to come ...

Photo: Pecan Tart from Zhengzhou's Jin Bo Da Häagen-Daz.

WHOAH!

While all of you are wondering "What happened to Mike?", but I'm here wondering "How the hell am I now able to access my blog?"

As for what's been happening, I would have to say a lot, but at present I'm moving again. I'm back at my first apartment staying with Chris, until the 25th of this month when I will be moving in with Paul (South Africa) and Ahi (New Zealand) to a rather large exquisite 2 floor 4 bedroom apartment (2 full bathrooms, kitchen, walk-out rooftop balcony). I would assume the condition of this apartment is this good due to it's current resident, a family from the U.S., who have been accustomed to western living, and lived here in Zhengzhou at that apartment for 4 years. I wish I had photos.

Also, I'm changing employers mid July to a FL (Foreign Language) school called SIAS. My position there will be the same as it is where I am presently, with one minor change, yet to be clarified beyond duties to perform in order to aquire an accurate title.

In any case, I'm still expecting to be starting university in September. Along with one of my new roomates, Paul. Or as he likes to call himself in his South African/British English, Poewl ...

Photo: NO PHOTO FOR YOU! >:[

Dinner

So it appears the 7.8 rict. earthquake killed thousands yesterday (also reported at 7.9 and 8.0).

In my apartment, the building swayed and I thought it was just me at first until I noticed my clothes that were hanging up were swaying left to right quite a bit. I was having a Chinese lesson at the time, and I told everyone to get out of the building, fast!

We got downstairs (6 flights, no elevator), and noticed we weren't the only ones who felt it. I had thoughts on the way down that it was caused by the nearby construction of a large apartment building, but I wasn't sure. I had a Mcgyvver moment, and decided to check the man-made river nearby to see if the water level had marked the stone wall of the channel, to help identify the nature of our experience. I couldn't see any water marks above the water level, so I was left to assume it was the nearby construction, but I still had doubts as the swaying of the building was very noticable, and it didn't seem possible that the construction had anything to do with it unless they hit our building with a wrecking ball, which also would have been loud and a much shorter physical experience (about 4-5 seconds of swaying vs. sudden impact).

None of it mattered because just after that, my Chinese teacher received a message on her cell, confirming it was an earthquake. Looking back, that's one of the remarkable things I noticed. Minutes after the event, millions (I assume) received the same text message. Whether it was a direct result of government panic control, or cellular service competativeness, we all knew what happened. Well, save for anyone who can't read Chinese ( ... like me. I get texts daily about the weather ...).

Today, I looked at my time and how I was spending it. Considering travel time and a few other things that consume time, I now realize just how booked my time is from Friday-Sunday. Considering all the things I need to take care of, I need to push my tasks back to Monday-Tuesday to stay on top of things.

I'm off to grab dinner.

Note 1: I have enabled comment posting, but pray I don't get random blog spams from strangers like "Nice post! Check out this porn site ...", etc.

Picture: NO PICTURE!!! ... I hate my ISP. So inconsistant, so unreliable.
Picture: Email me for a zip of photos from this day 13-05-2008.

The 7.8

I don't know, but I'm sure my internal richter scale isn't that sophisticated. That is, I couldn't tell you its value from my location, but I can tell you the swaying effect on the building I was in had me thinking I was about to faint.

To my family: "I'm fine, stop worrying" ... oh and "Please send money!"

I normally don't work today, but I did. I was hoping to track down my next appartment, but with work and class, I haven't been in one place long enough. I'm hoping one of my near future posts begins with "TASK COMPLETED!"

Tonights objective: Homework.

To my mother, "Happy Mother's Day!"

Picture: No picture. I still can't upload pics to my blog from this location.

... alas ...

8 days since my last post. I have tried every day to make a post, but from my current access to the net, it's next to impossible. I have limited and unreliable access to my blog at the moment. I can survive with the limited part, but the reliability part really drives a wrench through my happiness.

I'm still in deep water, as I have not yet found a new apartment. I did find one for more money than my 1st apartment, but smaller, less appealing, empty, and dilapidated. I found another, but it didn't feel right. I'm going to have to resume my search Monday. Saturday and Sunday are my heavy work days.

Although I have Monday-Thursday with no work, I would prefer having 4 straight days of heavy Chinese study. However, I must refrain until I find a place to stay.

If you're reading this post, then I'm rejoycing.

Picture: No picture. Limited functionality, remember?!

Checkpoint!

Ok, so it's Sunday, and I'm chewing away at my online studies. In fact, I had just sent an email to my instructor about a 9/10 on one of my previous assignments. I wonder if my great and amazing instructor Paul Gibson (he reads my blog) will permit and entertain a debate on the topic of the assignment in hopes of demonstrating my understanding of the course material pertaining to the assignment, and thus acheiving a 10/10.

I've moved my things from my old appartment to my first Chinese appartment, where my friend Chris still dwells. I'm only here temporarily, and this evening I'm off to look at 3 appartments. I don't exactly have a time limit on how long I can remain here, but it's important to me that I'm out on my own.

I managed to get my Friday/Saturday student evaluations completed, and still have 2 more classes remaining. It's surprising that it takes so long to write a paragraph for each student. Or maybe it's just in this way of keeping everything unique and personal, as opposed to generic copy/paste methods.

I haven't been to a hospital for my recent trend of allergy symptoms since last week, and I've decided not to bother taking any of these medicines. None of the 9 medicines I paid for are actually designed to deal with my symptoms, except for the 2 I hand-picked myself. Most of my symptoms are all but gone, save for the occasional sternutation.

Looking back, the only highlights of worth that haven't been mentioned yet are few:

1 Yesterday, during one of my last trips moving my things from appartment to appartment, I had flagged down a taxi, who told me not to get in, and proceded to ask me if I was from France. After I said I was from Canada, he got out of the car, and helped me load my suitcases. ... politics.

2 I named my kittens. I wanted to name them something awesome like "Butch" Rarrrrrrr!, or "The Stealth-paw" Vrooooo-shhhhh! However, they are both big sucks, so I went with "Sugar" for the white one, and "Pepper" for the dark multi-coloured one.

Picture: Pepper!