好久不见

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Long time no see everybody (好久不见）。
I guess that it's time to fill everybody in on my life as of late. I've got to say, I really don't have many complaints about my life here. I work a grand total of about 14 to 17 hours a week. 　So, I have lots of free time. My spare time is usually spent in the following ways:

-Hanging out with friends. I have made lots of friends both foreign and Chinese. The foreigners are from France, Korea, Spain, Germany, and even the good ole USA (in fact, I've met a Washingtonian, several Oregonians, and even one guy from West Linn!) In the evenings/weekends we tend to spend a lot of our time out at two clubs by the same owner, which are called Big Scarlet (大乱） and Small Scarlet (小乱）。 That tends to be our meeting place because they offer 50% discounts to foreigners and because the owner is a business partner of one of my friends here.

-Eating great food. My favorite dishes are fried potstickers (锅贴） (which cost about 20 for a dollar), wonton soup (馄饨）， Malatang (麻辣汤) (a kind of buffet soup in which you pick the ingredients that you want and then they cook it for you in a giant hot-pot), hand-pulled noodles (拉面), Home Style Tofu (家常豆腐）, and Spicy Tofu with these crazy numbing peppers (麻辣豆腐）。 I also eat lots of Japanese, Korean, and Mexican food (although the Mexican food doesn't hold a candle to American tex-mex or authentic Mexican food).

-Studying Chinese. I have a great tutor that comes to my apartment twice a week for an hour and a half at a time. I also spend a lot of time on Skype chatting with random Chinese people to practice my Chinese. By chatting, I mean both spoken and written. I also try to spend at least one night a week hanging out with someone who only speaks Chinese. That usually takes the form of a date with a non-English speaking Chinese girl. (By the way, I always get asked if I have a girlfriend here. The answer is no. At the time being that's kind of how I want it).

-Doing laundry. Sadly, my washing machine sucks and laundry is a big effort. Western-style driers pretty much don't exist here and because of limited drying space, I can only do laundry in little bits. This means that I am probably doing a load of laundry at any given time, yet 90% of my clothes are usually in the dirty clothes hamper. 😞

-Watching movies. Bootleg movies here are amazing. They cost about a dollar each and the quality is uncanny. A funny side note about the DVDs is that they often include quotes from reviews on the covers, however, since the people making the covers often don't speak English, they sometimes include negative reviews. So, you may buy a a great movie that says something like, "If I had a third thumb, I'd put it down as well."

-Exercising. When I first got here I joined a gym called Nairobi. It's a great gym with excellent facilities that's only a 10 minute walk from my apartment. I try to go there at least 3 times a week, but I'm finding even that quite difficult.


Well, that's about it for now. I've been really bad about taking pictures, but I'm trying to get better. I miss you all and I hope to hear from you soon.

Much love,
Mike/林仁柯

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Comments

[Jason]

Haha, no way!
So, I googled: "Big Scarlet, Nanjing China" just to see what came up about the nightlife in our fair city. Low and behold I see some clip from this entry along the lines of "when we go out we mostly go to two clubs of almost the same name" (I'm to lazy to look back and copy/paste) So, I clicked it because that's what I do too! I then arrived at your blog. Word. See you Tuesday.

[luz]

Pobre mi miguelito, con tanto extranjero junto, debes estar rayándote con los idiomas. ¿sopa wantan ¿potsticker frito....sólo te falta tu arroz chaufa y tofu al sillao y ya tienes tu menú de comida peruana, jaja. oye Chinito, sigue haciendo ejercicio, con tanta comida rica te vas a poner gordo otra vez,...hehe, bromita.