It's been a long time between drinks... (Marcus)

...or blog posts rather. I guess over the past few weeks as we start to slowly wind down and depart, my mind has been on other things. While previous I have been thinking about nothing other than China China China - now - well I guess it's more focused on 'real world' stuff like, resumes and finding a job and christ why are we going home again!!!

Nah just kidding -while finding a new job and returning to normality is going to be hard after this surreal little adventure, it's going to be good to advancing forward again. While in China we've had the opportunity to experience an absolute myriad of things we honestly never thought we would, we're not actually going anywhere. We're making very average money(by Australian standards) which means our bank balances are slowly dwindling, we're not moving any closer towards things such as house deposits, car's, more cats(!) and essentials such as...large high definition TV's....yes damnit! I don't care what you say Courtney!

So we're about to start our final week of teaching and I really have to say this time round? It really has been a LOT better. The students are much much better. Their english is better, they're more willing to talk and participate - oh and we only have 10 classes a week - that helps too. I don't know what it is but I suspect a big part of it is the fact we have started teaching them from the start of their school year - not mid-way through. I am sure I have spoken about this before.

Anyhow the last few weeks have been brimming with the usual random things. I really shouldn't let the blog slip for so long in between posts as I really forget a lot of the things that go on.

First random item on today's agenda is our german bread. Yes, we have been eating german bread from Germany with our breakfast and I have to say it's pretty damned awesome.

I recieved this random email a few days ago from a friend of ours named Josh:

Hi Marcus,

How are you doing?

Just now I called you, it seems that you are at there.

I just get back from my trip to USA and Germanny and I bought some bread for you from Frankfurt this morning around 1:00AM Beijing time, and the bread is already in my home.

I would like to send the bread to you at once, as I do not know how long the bread can be kept. I know nothing about bread.

Please give me a call, I will call you again.

So uh...yeah, German bread coming our way! We met Josh the following day, he has a huge bag full of bread and well now our freezer is stuffed to the point of overflowing with the stuff. But man, it's normal bread! Something of a luxury item here in sunny China. I guess I really made an impression on him with my complaints about the sweet Chinese bread on offer around here. That's one thing I cant wait to get my teeth into when we get home.

Speaking of sunny - at the change of season to Autumn the weather started to really cool down and I thought hey, it's going straight towards being cold - this country being somewhat clearcut with it's seasonal conditions, but no, it's heating right back up again. Along with the return of the heat comes an increase in mosquitoes, yay!

I think I can actually sum up China's yearly weather conditions now perfectly. You have a few months of absolutely bitingly cold, and then it's hot with mosquitoes for the rest of the year. I think the thing I have enjoyed the least about living here is without doubt - mosquitoes. I absolutely cannot stand them. I seriously do not know how people can live in areas where they are rampant. They are the single most annoying thing I have ever experienced ever. I cant remember what it's like to walk around NOT itching myself all over - or better yet, waking up in the wee hours of the morning with hands so itchy it almost hurts.

So because we're almost leaving, we decided to catch up for a final time with our New Zealand pals Matt and Abby and head out and have a bit of fun. We were going to go check this movie set place down on the lake(Tai Hu). There's supposedly three movie sets which from what I gather are also a bit theme-park like. They actually make movies there to this day. There's three sets and they range in theme, one of them being like, Tang Dynasty, another Three Kingdoms etc etc. All in all it sounded like a bit of fun, and also in the 7 months we've been here we have spent a grand total of 30 minutes by the lake...the lake being the 3rd biggest in China and one of the reasons Wuxi is in the top 10 destinations for chinese tourists. Don't worry mum, we'll take you there at least, then we can like both experience it for the first time!

So it gets to yesterday and the weather could not possibly have been more foul. It was boiling hot and absolutely smoggy as hell. Blech. The heat I don't mind so much now, but the smog really gets to me. I do not feel like going anywhere when it's that polluted. Wow - look at the lake..it's so beautiful...under it's ABSOLUTE BLANKET OF SMOG!! Matt reckons it's only really partially smog, while the humidity brings a lot of the vapour out of the water and into the air. Because this area is absolutely packed with water - canals/lakes etc, that's possibly the reason why in hotter weather the air conditions can worsen. I don't know...it sounds like a legit explanation, but the black crap it leaves on everything and the fact it's light blue in colour(like smoke) kind of stinks of smog to me.

So we headed off to Matt and Abby's and then walked from their place to a bus stop. We needed bus 72 and of course it got there just ahead of us and wouldn't wait for us as all four of us started running to make it. Then to my complete lack of surprise, along came bus 27 x 4. That's right, 4 of the same bus in a row. Go figure. It was a 20-40 minute wait for the next 72, so rather than waiting we ended up grabbing a cab. As we got into the cab I looked back along the highway and noticed the sky had darkened somewhat - the light grey smog was not a darker grey which usually meant incomming rain. I told the others and Abby agreed with the wind really picking up and moving the trees. We decided to ditch the movie set and turn around and go into the city - and man it was the best decision we made as it started bucketing down.

One thing about China is when it rains getting a cab can be a nightmare. Being stuck out at the lake and not being able to get home in the rain? Oh joyous day.

So we ended up just wandering around the city, realizing that yeah there's really not much to do entertainment wise. We chilled in Starbucks for a while, walked around the shops, then finally ended up in the German beer garden for a cold beer and air-conditioning. We then headed off to TGI Fridays - our western food destination of choice, had a few cocktails then off to Blue Bar for some more again. By the end of the night I am happy to say Courty was fair sloshed and man I wish i could have video'ed her drunked stompy walk effort on the way back home, it was so damned cute. I put her to bed and she went out like a light, and well, that was our day!

Here's Courtney enjoying our lovely day out with Matt and Abby. Worst weather ever.

The rest of us opted to sit under shelter and wait the rain out.

Matt & Abby - we'll miss you guys! We got to experience Mars together..litterally!

Next stop Drunktown!

And in completely unrelated news - the other day in the local super-supermarket, E-Mart that opened around the corner, we stumbled upon REAL ACTUAL MINCE MEAT! Now this is a win for the little people. Our cooking to date has been hampered by the fact that other than frozen chicken fillets from Metro, it is really really hard to find decent beef - or tender meat period. This mince is fantastic, and we tag-team went to town and made hamburgers and goddamn I have to say that while the photo doesn't really show it, these were some of the best burgers I have tasted in my life. I breathed them in so fast they were gone and I am still sad :(

We have seen this little character on so many products around the place - including the above drink that we decided finally to buy one of the damned things and see what it was. The brand is apparently called 'Want Want', and it has it's own website, www.wantwant.com. We looked up the above drink and this turned out to be a Strawberry flavour of their 'Bubbalicious' line. Well the end product is like a not-milk drink - think a milk drink crossed with a standard softdrink but really being neither - and mega strawberry flavoured - kind of tasted like Strawberry Quik. Neither of us could drink it, it was kinda...crap. I did buy the standard flavoured one today and it was sort of like weird Creamy Soda. So yeah, experimentation right up until the end, hoorah.

And last but not least, one of my new gifted students, a little girl with the name..Iris, drew this for me. Make sure you click on this photo for the full-sized - best picture yet! Cracked me up, I thanked her profusely. It makes you feel good when a student draws something for you - or gives you a gift. I will miss the teacher/student bonds that form, I really will. Who knows, maybe one day I'll look into Primary teaching or something. The teaching i didn't mind so much, it was just the lesson planning that stunk.

Oh and in final final news - my poor brother Nick broke his arm recently - an arm he's broken multiple times in the past due to skate-boarding. Get well soon buddy! And Mum is looking to still come over in around a weeks time - now that will be fun! Can't wait! And that's all folks, catch!