A Big Wind Blows

Yesterday, the classes in the morning were cancelled because of a sandstorm. How awesome is that? A sandstorm!

It wasn't one like in Hidalgo, but it was still pretty cool. The days before had been hot and sunny, and dead calm. Yesterday I woke up to the howling of the wind, and stepping outside was nearly blown over. In front of a building next to my apartment were two dust devils, given more permanence than normal by the storm, and five times the usual size. One of the Chinese teachers told me it's because of deforestation inland (to make disposable chopsticks!), and that the Japanese government sponsors tree replanting in China because the storms reach as far as Japan itself.

Today I went to the sports park with Alex - it's a nice park, and has a gym attached. You can pay 200RMB per month for membership in the gym, or you can use the exercise machines scattered throughout the park for free. Go figure. Apparently exercise machines are a common feature in Chinese parks, although they're more clunky and solid than the equivalent inside a gym. I'm going to start trying to get up early enough that I can go to the park to work out without dying from the heat.

Look! It's a Post!

I don't really have a reason for not updating in so long, so I'm not going to try and explain the lack of posts recently. Instead, I'm going to talk about stuff!

A lot has happened, so not everything is going in this post. This post is going to be long enough as it is, partly because I want use English with no concern as to whether I'm using words or constructions that might not be understood. Nothing like living in a country that doesn't speak English to make you value using the language - really using it, not just a tiny subset. I'll talk about the dinner party and the violin in a day or two.

I don't want to rag on China straight off the bat, though - instead, I want to talk about nice Chinese people, because it's not something I really expected. I want each of you to imagine how you'd treat a Chinese person wandering around your city with absolutely no grasp of English, just for comparison - but I am constantly finding nice people here. The checkout operators at the supermarket give great big smiles for a simple 'thank you'; a man on the bus wiped down a wet seat for me so I could sit down; the man at the violin shop just being a generally nice guy; all the teachers at school.

I still haven't learned much Chinese. I did take a taxi on my own for the first time today, though, and even managed to get where I wanted to go.

The weather is getting warmer here. Yesterday I was fine in just a t-shirt, although today took a colder turn and forced me back into my jacket. Speaking of which, this post isn't going to be as long as first promised - I'm cold here, I have to move away from the place I can actually get internet access. More tomorrow!