nǐ shuō shénme?

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Well, I don’t have a whole lot to report this week – I’ll be honest… But, I've decided to press on and write despite the fact that not every week is going to have some mind-blowing revelation to write on... that's what makes the revelations mind-blowing, I suppose!

The biggest event of this week is that the holidays are coming to a close here in China, and it’s back to the grind. I am happy to report that the sun decided to return to Hangzhou for a day or two this week as well, and with it a generally better mood for everyone. I’m starting to remember what it’s like to live in a city in the winter: grey. Despite the lake and the forests and the hills that can be found in and among the cityscape in this particular urban jungle, it is still a city. And when the sun refuses to come out for a week solid, the entire city just goes a kind of drab grey, including the people. But, that is passing as the sun and warmth are making a return!

This past week has brought a nice balance of adventure and boredom for me, making me plenty ready to be back at work. On the quiet side, I’ve spent a lot of time in my apartment with my guitar. In fact, I’m starting to get a little bored with the small handful of songs that I can really play – so I’m starting to experiment, and am also definitely open to suggestions for new songs to learn if anyone has them! As for adventure, I wrote about my CNY shenanigans... Otherwise, I’ve had a multitude of opportunities to explore the various bus routes, expat hangouts and hiking trails that make Hangzhou what it is going to be for me this year. Through this exploration, I’ve made an entirely new set of friends away from work, which is bound to come in handy as the year presses on. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the friends that I have made through work!! But, there is bound to come a time when I’ve had enough of The Mouse and just need to have a night or even a weekend where there will not be a single mention of “my F1 class” or “the clubhouse” or names of annoying colleagues.

One very exciting moment came in the form of jumping on the bandwagon and scaring off some demons this week! See, the fireworks that I wrote about on CNY have not stopped since. Every morning at precisely 7:12am, one firework enthusiast goes nuts with his demon-scaring from a neighboring apartment building. It's been quite annoying. But, revenge is sweet. A friend and I made the plunge and dropped a whopping 10rmb for 10 phenomenally loud fireworks -- the shooty-up kind that would be TOTALLY illegal in the States. Some elderly Chinese people may or may not have been caught laughing their heads off at a pair of disheveled white folk running clumsily every which way and screaming each time a fuse was lit... that... may have happened. But in my head, it was revenge and I clearly now have the upper hand. Mwahaha.

At any rate, I am indeed ready to be back to the grind. In all actuality, I returned to work on the 12^th for some intermittent marketing activities throughout the week, so I’ve already been back to the grind in some sense. But, being there just hasn’t been the same with 90%!o(MISSING)f the staff being gone. I have been particularly excited about the return of the local staff, and with it my full-contact Chinese language training! I’m finding that I am starting to pick up the language faster and faster as I grow more comfortable talking to the girls. Naturally, I have the most have fun learning phrases with which to tease people (including myself!). Otherwise, I have three or four general phrases that I can jump to with ease… and from those phrases I’m learning to apply different words to make new ones. It’s all very exciting when things go right, but when it all goes wrong or people start talking too quickly, I typically resort to yelling, “Bù zhīdào nǐ shuō shénme! Dàn wǒ bùshì měiguó báichī!” Meaning… “I don’t know what you’re saying! But I am NOT an American idiot!” This tends to leave people laughing, and provides an excellent exit line so that I can go somewhere quiet and catch my breath for awhile.

Anyway, I’m excited for the week ahead: to have my friends back, to be back in a routine, and for the warm weather that’s on the way! But most importantly, I am super excited that the Chinese restaurant-owning population has returned to Hangzhou so that I can eat something other than KFC this week! Wahoo!!!

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Photos

Baochu Hill
The view from Baochu Hill/Pagoda - a famous tourist attraction in Hangzhou. This WOULD have been the view I WOULD have had on CNY, had I made it... oh well!