Ah Friday again! (Marcus)

Actually it's good Friday today..I think. I was completely oblivious to the fact that this weekend is Easter until yesterday when I think Courtney mentioned it. If not for that, I would not have had a clue. I feel so oblivious to what's going on back home sometimes it's not funny. It's like we're in our own little bubble world - us and 4 zillion Chinese people.

This Friday marks day 1 of month 2. I can't believe we have been here a month now, eesh! I guess we have well and truly passed the early days of initial culture shock. Actually in hindsight I would have to say we're quite a way passed it now. Sometimes things can feel quite sucky, but I think we've found a bit of a groove and are coasting along in it.

Courtney is sick again unfortunately. More cold/flu like symptoms which she likely picked up from one of the students as there's quite a few sick at the moment apparently. Ah the joys of dealing with like 1500ish different kids per week...maybe even more.

So Wednesday, the 19th - or was it Thursday the 20th..one of the two, marked us being here a month. We feel a lot more comfortable than we did initially(Other than Courtney being sick again) and this week's lesson for the senior students has been quite successful. I taught it four times today and I have to say that by including a game or two into the mix definitely scores us brownie points with the teens.

Tomorrow all of the students we teach - Senior 1, Junior 1 and Gifted - actually, maybe only Senior 1 and Gifted - Mr Pan said around 900 kids - so yeah, not Junior 1 - are going on some big 'hike'. I asked Mr Pan how far it was and got about 7 different answers so lost interest. One of the students today told me its 12 km - I figure 6km there, 6km back. The students are going, and all of their teachers.

I am actually tossing up going - (Courtney isn't due to said illness) - because I think it might be a good chance to 'socialize' with some of the students and teachers and well, it might be fun. The only thing that worries me a little is my left foot. Since breaking it when I was a teenager, it can unpredictably become suddenly very painful for absolutely no reason, but generally when walking. So I will have a think about it and will see. If I go, I will take the camera along, because who knows what I will see on the trip. The thought of 900 kids alone crossing the streets around here cracks me up. Mr Pan said the teachers would guide them across - ie stop traffic etc, but China being China, most vehicles will continue on regardless..so yeah, that'll be comedy.

If I go on the walk tomorrow, we will go to WuXi city on Sunday - or if i don't go, we'll go Saturday. We really want to buy a new top or two each, and I really need a new pair of shoes. Living in the same 4ish tops, and same two pairs of shoes is really wearing them down to hell. The shoes you buy from the cheap market style places are really kind of crap. There's a few big department stores - actually that's not true, there's a LOT of big department stores in WuXi City, so I am sure we'll find something.

Right and finally, to prettify(tm) this wall of text, here's some photos - taken using my mobile phone(so sorry the quality isnt as good).

Have been trying to get a closer shot of these kind of guys since arriving here but never have the actual camera when we see them. You have to admire their loading skills. It's not dangerous or anything cruising around with that kind of load. I should start an album dedicated to stuff we've seen on the back of trucks and motorcycles alone. I think my favourite is still one we saw after being here a few days where this guy is riding by on a scooter with a huge pane of glass horizontal across the bike..down where his legs were.

This is apartment construction as I have mentioned before. You see these ALL over the place. So many it's hard to comprehend. It goes from being a fugly mess covered with bamboo scaffolding and the like as you can see above, and suddenly turns into hey presto new apartments.

Ok I mentioned this traffic jam the other day. The photo doesn't really do it justice. This is outside of Metro. The car's here are basically banked up. To the left you can see car's pulling out of Metro, blocking a bus and a lot of other traffic behind them. It was grid-locked like this for over ten minutes. Why? Because the stream of cars on the right would NOT, repeat NOT let those cars cutting in..in. And of course those cars tried to cut in regardless - they couldn't give a rat's ass what they were blocking. This is what I love about China, it's every man for himself on the road. There were at least 5-10 passenger busses caught up in the jam, it was lovely.

And last but not least, there's nothing quite so refreshing as Acid Milk. Mmh Yeah.