I know that I’m writing from several time zones ahead of many of you, and I’d like to report that there has still not been a rapture yet.
The world didn’t end in 1994 when Harold Camping said that it would, it didn’t end in 2000 when EVERYONE said it would, it didn’t end yesterday, and it sure as hell won’t end anytime soon. In other words…
Until next time,
G
After the blast that was sepatakraw and field hockey, I knew that I needed more. The games were only around for two weeks, and when else would I get the chance? I mean, I don’t exactly have plans to move to London for 2012, or Rio for 2016. So I set out for more tickets, unavailability be damned!
After trips all over the metropolis, I decided to settle close to home. I knew that there was a football match at the Tianhe Sports Centre, a short walk away from my house. I had heard that most soccer tickets were pretty easy to get, unless China was playing of course. Just to prepare myself for the game, and to decide on a teach to cheer for, I checked out who was playing.
It was the Women’s Semi-final. Korea vs. Korea.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a warning, nothing more, nothing less. I know that this will pique your curiosity, but fight that basic human instinct and just listen to what I’m saying here.
Do not read or see anything that is at all related to Human Centipede! I read a review of it on-line, and didn’t quite get it, so I read a few more. I am full of regret over this decision of mine. It is the most disgusting movie ever put to film, and the director is without question the sickest human being I can think of.
This goes beyond the Hostel and Saw torture porn. You want nothing to do with this! I know I just made you want to learn more about it if you haven’t already. But trust me, you don’t.
Don’t say you weren’t warned!
Until next time,
G
Every so often something comes along and changes the face of what we know. A few years ago we had the OK Dance Video, before that “All Your Base”, and now we have something so amazing that it simply escapes words. I love people that don’t have lives…
The LeBron James nWo video…the greatest thing ever achieved in the Internet bar none.
Until next time,
G
I never gave the US much of a chance. I spent my travel time, money, and energy on far away places in Europe and Asia. I mean, why would I go to my closest neighbour when I can go to China or Greece?
I always felt like this was the right decision. I mean, I can always go to a closer place where everyone speaks English when I’m older, slower, and less adventurous. Also, maybe the difficulty entering the US would loosen up in the coming years, so why bother, right?
There was of course, one place in the country that I wanted to go, but never felt the need or pull like I had for places like Paris or Beijing. I mean, I had seen it in almost every movie and television show that I had ever turned on. So why bother going to a place like New York? I mean, I had practically been there already without leaving my own home.
And then, last year happened. I start dating someone from The City (as it tends to be known) and I go for a few day visit.
Pardon me for buzzing a bit but I’m a wee bit excited. See I never win anything and tonight I did.
Tonight was my school’s Chinese New Year banquet and there were a series of door prizes. They early roudns ranged from hand towels to cooking wear even to travel vouchers. But I won the grand prize…and I’ve named it Phil.
At the grand finale of the evening they drew one last name for a prize, and I won. I never win anything, except for tonight. I won a Philips 32 Inch LCD TV.
I was so excited that I ran up and gave my head of school a hug, then I lifted her up a good 3 feet into the air. Then I picked up Phil and gave him a kiss (he’s in a box, so there’s protection). I was so excited that my hand slipped, and I felt him start to tumble from my grasp.
Thankfully I was able to reach my hand back and nab him just before he hit the ground. That would have been embarassing.
I have nothing else to add right now, I’m more excited that anything. Here’s a Google image result of Phil.
Tropical Paradise Not Included
To make things even funnier, I was a few hours late to the dinner, as I was coaching Middle School Floor Hockey, so I had to give my ticket to Elvina to put it into the raffle. To make it even funnier, last year she won plane tickets to Qingdao. Luckily she took me with her. I figure it’s fair now, I’ll let her watch my TV. To make things even funnier still, I found out that my head of school (remember the one that I lifted into the air) has a hurt ankle..oops. If she’s hurt, she can always come over and watch my TV.
Until next time,
G
Hey all!!!
Pretty unreal eh?
I spent so much time asking myself if what I was seeing was real. The limestone karsts (those weird looking hills) looked so fantastic that I felt that there should be faeries and dragons running around.
The highlight came on Saturday when we took a very relaxing bamboo raft ride down the river. On the way down the river there were people set up with booths or rafts of their own trying to sell tourists a variety of food and drinks. So I got to spent 5 Yuan (about 85 cents in Canada) for a 600mL bottle of beer. I fucking love China.
Don’t get me wrong, there were some ugly sides as well. Yangzhou in particular is an absolute tourist trap. It always bums me out to see beautiful places get ruined by mass tourism. It reminded me so much of Niagara Falls, so much beauty amid so much cheese.
Worst of all though was the bike ride to the bamboo raft. While it was absolutely amazing to get out into the country and ride by some rice fields, it made me really sad. I saw an incredible amount of poverty along the way. It made me so very sad to see people covered in dirt with no shoes on begging for money. The houses were so run down I wondered what purpose they even served. It always makes me sad when people are so poor around such beautiful areas, like Cape Breton or the Scottish Highlands but magnified immensely.
What made me even sadder was to think about how much worse other people have things. As far as developing countries, China is probably the richest one there is. I could only imagine how much my heart would be breaking in a less fortunate country.
Anyway, I don’t want to end on a downer so here are a couple more pictures of the unreal Li River Scenery. If any of you are planning on going to Asia, you need to make this a priority, you will not be disappointed!!!
Until next time,
G
Myself and two friends, Steve and Jarrod, went to a near by park called Blue Mountain Scenic Area and did we ever have ourselves an adventure. First off it took us a really long time to get there, since the bus we were taking just sort of stopped and we had no idea where we were going, so we kept asking for directions (lucky for us my guide book has things written in Chinese or we would still be wandering!!!!). Once we got there though we were rewarded with some amazing views of Nanning and the surrounding area.
There were these amazing pagodas in the middle of the forest, the worlds longest bamboo corridor (it was 512m!!!!), a beautiful Buddhist temple that you could smell the incense from a mile away and this unreal lookout tower on the top of a mountain. Of course there were mini-buses going everywhere which we refused on many occasions. We were trying to get to a separate tower that we could see off in the distance and were wandering over towards it.
At this point I should point out to people that I haven’t mentioned it to already. Foreigners are treated like rock stars around here. We get constantly gazed at and many, many people randomly say hello to us and giggle whenever we talk back. Life is good.
Anyway, back to reality. We were wandering around to find this tower and started walking through this field and this family (a mother, father and son that was maybe 4 years old) stopped to say hi to us. They then wanted to take our picture with their son, which we gladly obliged.
After we got to the end of the field we stopped to have a seat, as the sun started to quickly set. I was wondering just how nice our view would be in the dark and how long these mini-buses were running until, when the family came by again. Through a series of elaborate hand gestures the mother ended up offering us a drive. We were amazed and of course accepted.
They began to drive us out of the park and we really had no idea what to say (not that they would have understood anyway). They pulled over and the mother got out and started bargaining with this old lady on the side of the road. After a few minutes the father got out too, leaving the three of us foreigners alone in their new car, with their child and the keys in the ignition. Now where would you see that level of trust in North America?
They get back in with a back of star fruit and the mother turns around and gives us each one. I was spell bound I mustered out the best xiexie that I could and felt myself tearing up a bit. We communicate to the family to drop us off at the bus station (a couple of minutes from where we are) and I end up taking their picture as a memento of something that I don’t think that I could ever forget.
Sorry the picture is low quality, my camera is a wee bit old.
I was so touched by this random act of kindness. Here we were as far away from home as we could ever be, in bot the literal and figurative sense, and we were treated to an act of true generosity. It made no difference in their lives I imagine to offer us a ride but it made all the difference in ours. It really goes to show me more that this world we live in is not so bad after all. One of my old high school teachers once said that “there are millions of good people out there just dying for you to ask them a favour” and I would like to add if I may “but there are few great ones who don’t need to be asked”. Well thousands of miles from home I met some pretty darn great ones.
I guess I need to find someway to make another deposit or two before I go into overdraft.
Until next time,
G
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