A Travelogue and (occasional) Sketchblog
[written at 2:12 PM, August 6th]
It’s been a damn strange last few days, let me tell you. Without internet (as I write this), I can’t remember when the last time I wrote was – maybe four, five days ago – but I’ve had a couple good reasons, my schedule included. For one, these last three [...]
[Written at 10:36 PM, July 29th]
It’s a real shame that I don’t have a tripod. There’s a beautiful smog red half (or so) moon hanging out just over the buildings across the way. I’ve tried to take a number of pictures of it, but I, unfortunately, lack the muscle stillness to pull off a competent [...]
[Originally written at 9:18 AM, July 23rd
Warning: This is an extremely long post.]
It’s about 9:18 AM and I’ve got a video date with Kelly in about three hours. I could just go down to the school and squat on their internet for the interim, but… I really don’t like just sitting around when everyone else [...]
[Originally written at 9:24 PM, July 22]
Ah HA! Found an errant bar of unprotected wireless signal!
Heh. My students call me “Jayml laoshi.”
I just managed to unlock my cell phone – I now have a Chinese phone number. There are only two problems with this: one, the cell phone does not work in this concrete hulk [...]
What follows is a transcript of periodic observations during my ordeal in transience between Xuzhou and Xiangfan last week. Hard to believe that it was just last Tuesday. Anyways, it kind of runs the gamut from anthropological naval-gazing, self-piteous lamentations, to just matter of fact “this just happened.” Looking back on this, detached by even [...]
(Written at 7:52 PM, July 21st)
Well… that was a bust. I left at… around 2? Popped into the school to check my email real quick and then took off for the old half of the city again. I did a bit of walking, but… something weird happened and I completely ran out of energy. I [...]
(Written at 8:58 AM, July 21st)
Ah… my first day to just decompress. To literally just sit and do nothing. My manager/roommate is out in Xi’an for another day or so, so I have the apartment to myself. I managed to figure out how to rig his DVD player and speakers to pump out the Beatles’ [...]
8:33 PM, July 20th
I’m still in the process of getting my head screwed on correctly, but I think I can actually get out a post about Xiangfan itself, rather than my addled ennui.
It’s kind of hard to believe that I’ve only been here since last Tuesday. It’s Sunday night for me right now, so that’s [...]
(Written at 10:18 PM, July 18th)
I really need to apologize to everyone. Or, maybe I don’t, but I will anyways. Floating from one uncomfortable station to the next to finally land in the mother of all uncomfortable circumstances, I let myself fall into a self pitying, naval gazing, despair mode wherein all I could do [...]
Ugh… this no internet thing is a real bother. I’m still not exactly settled in terms of pacing my life, so updates will be random, backdated, and sporadic for a bit, I think.
One thing that I did want to mention is that my bed is made out of wood. I mean, the mattress is made [...]