China Girl: Not Just A Song By David Bowie

There is much that I must catch my readers up with. I know that ended in a preposition, a practice I am very much against, but I am tired and I couldn't think of another way to phrase the sentence. Anyway, Facebook and other social networking sites are indeed blocked in mainland China. My head teacher, Megan, has found a free proxy site that we can use, so here I am. For those of you who have Facebook, you are aware that I can access it now. Mi padre did suggest to update my blog for me, but that is unnecessary, seeing as I have the power now. Here's how it's going down: I last left you at the ferry station-port-thing. I had a vanilla cream frappicino at the Starbucks there and it was pretty good (Seinfield reference). Then we boarded the ferry and it was the only time I have ever been seasick. The reason being (I don't know how to say this politically correct and all) I was currently being visited by a monthly friend and I was nauseous. When we arrived in Zhongshan, we were taken to our complex. Literally, that is what it is: a bunch of apartments all gated in with guards at the gates. We live in a suburby kinda area call "Kaiyin". This is where the plot thickens; our apartments are not in the same building. Sarah, Sydney, and Stephanie are all in D5. Megan, Mistey, Kristi, and I are in F10. This is good, because we paid for the internet only for F10. We were taken to dinner that night where we ate many things including duck chin. Throughout the past month and a half, I have eaten many things I never imagined. Most notably, baby pigeon. If only PETA or Shaleia could have seen how it's served. Basically, it looks the same as when it's alive, but there are no feathers and it's cooked. It was surprisingly tasty. After teaching the summer classes, we started our new ones. The real semester. We not only teach ILP, but Cambridge, which is completely different. But whatev. We went to Yong Shou (where the Dr. Seuss mountains are) two weekends ago, before starting the new semester. It was the ghetto; the real China, if you will. There were lots of people with hunched backs and chickens everywhere. I've never seen so many chickens in one place in all my life, including the scene of the castle past the goblin city in the middle of the Labyrinth. We went to the mud caves, and hiked up to Moon Hill with old Chinese women following us. They fanned us and tried to get us to buy water. I caved in because I was dehydrated. I paid too much, but I did negotiate the price down from the original asking price. We rode on bamboo rafts down a river. We also saw the rice terraces. All-in-all, a good vacation. However, on the night bus (HP reference) there was a gentleman in that back with us smoking. He barely cracked the window open, so we were getting an unhealthy dose of second-hand smoke. However, every time he hocked a loogey, he would open the window all the way. Very classy.