Randomness

So I don’t really know where to start with the craziness of this past week. Actually random is probably a better description than crazy. It was all pretty normal, well language study and doing my usually weekly things, until Thursday evening. For the past couple of weeks my tutor has been bringing his cousin, who is eight, to our language lessons and I’ve been helping him some with his English. For an eight year old his English is really good. Well, during my Thursday language study I got to meet my tutor’s uncle. He is a very nice guy. He is kind of loud and speaks English really well. It turns out he is something like the regional gov’t guy, which apparently is kind of a big deal. I got to meet him and then he said maybe we could meet up next week. Well, I got a phone call from him at about 6pm and next week turned into meeting him and some friends at 7pm. So he picked me up and went to this random restaurant with all of these middle-aged gov’t officials. Several of them were in from the capital and I think they were kind of big shots. The whole thing turned out to be this college reunion that happens for them, so I really have no idea how I got invited to this. I felt way out of place though. The guy who brought me was a good host and he said it was great that he could work on his English again while I was there. I ended up sitting at the table next to this guy who was already a little tipsy when I got there. He was pouring some kind of local moonshine out of a clear gasoline container and he kept insisting that I drink some. I kept trying to explain to him that I didn’t really want to drink any of it but he didn’t really understand that because EVERYONE here smokes and drinks. So after about an hour we left the restaurant and headed over to another part of town. We ended up at this really cool restaurant/bar that is owned by a Frenchman and we sat outside and tea. There was also a concert that started with a girl singing, a guy on the keyboard, and another old guy that played the flute and saxophone. They weren’t bad except they kept butchering songs from American that haven’t been popular for at least ten years (if ever). I about died laughing when one of the guys sang ‘Don’t Break my Heart’ with this very thick accent. I also heard some John Denver, The Temptations, and Ricky Martin. The best moment had to be during the Ricky Martin song when two of the women and one of the men in our party got out of their chairs, climbed on stage and started dancing. There just aren’t words to describe seeing a drunk, middle-aged, high-ranking Asian official doing the cabbage-patch to a Ricky Martin song. Eventually I managed to talk my friend into taking me home, since it was his son’s bedtime.

Friday morning three of us took off on a bus at 7am to head out to another city to meet up with some friends. The trip up there was supposed to be a five-hour bus ride (which in actuality was 10 ½) and then a three-hour train ride. I think it was about the most miserable bus ride ever. We even took a different way back, which turned out to be a 15 hour bus ride, and that actually seemed a lot better than the one on the way up there. Once we got there the weekend was great. We got to spend some time with some great people and also got some great food. Sometimes I forget that there are actual restaurants that serve good normal food. There are definitely some advantages to living out in the middle of nowhere but as far as good restaurants and travel go, we are definitely lacking.

So things are going to be a little crazy over the next few days. I’ll be taking off this weekend for a little vacation at the beach. I’m looking forward to getting away for a few days before school and everything gets back into full swing. I’ll be gone for a while so I’m pretty sure this thing won’t get updated for at least a week.

Being Caught Up

Things have been good out here over the past week. Everything seems to be slowing down some and getting a little more back to normal after a crazy month in July. To be honest, things have been a little bit on the dull side. It has been great for language study though. I’m back in my routine of trying to get in five hours a day, including time with my tutor. And it feels really good to be fully caught up on emails and paperwork. I’m going to enjoy it because it will probably only last for another week or two.

This upcoming weekend I am planning on traveling with two others to meet up with a guy who lives in the province to our north. While we are there he is going to show us how to set a few things up that we might be able to use down here. It should be an interesting trip. None of us really know where we are going but we have a rough idea of where to get off the bus and hopefully catch another one. It should be a solid day of travel, then we will be there for about two days, and then spend a day traveling back. We will get back to town and be here for about four or five days and then we are taking off for a little bit of training/vacation. I’m definitely excited about that. I love it here and it is beautiful, but a few days on the beach are always a good thing. It will also be nice to have a few days to hang out in Hong Kong. Other than going to Disneyland I’m planning on eating a lot of good American food and maybe doing some shopping. I’m not really a big shopper, but considering that you can’t really buy much of anything here it will be nice to have a few options. You can’t even buy cheese here, much less anything really nice. And once we get back to town I’ll be starting school classes, so I’m pretty sure that I need to enjoy being caught up on things while it lasts.