Sunday, September 7, 2008

Another one bites the dust.

My relaxing weekend ended on an unpleasant note, after I left the supermarket to find that my second bike had been stolen. Can you imagine? Have I not contributed enough to the Chinese economy?

It's a good thing I had it this past week, though, as I had to make hour-long bike treks to the horse-pittle every day to have toxic things injected into my delicate body--a "remedy" I'm fairly certain was all for naught.

Otherwise, this last week marked what I hope will be the last rough month at school. Though I'll be glad for the overtime, I don't think teaching 8 hours a day is something I'll miss.

I traveled to Da Hutong this afternoon, which is the largest distribution center of crap in northern China. If you don't need it or want it, you can easily find it in this square-kilometer quilt of three-story football field-sized showrooms, sewn together by alleyways of stands selling everything from underwear to office supplies. It's quite a sight. You'd think, however, that being China, the fabric markets would be teeming with deals and delightful fabrics. Not so, not so.

I've thus given up on decorating my apartment. The money could be better spent on travel (my end-of-contract trip to India will be far more expensive than I anticipated, it seems) or clothes (fall is around the corner) or food (of which I've eaten far too much these days). I'm only going to live here for another 7 months, and I should probably enjoy the quirky Chinese-ness of my apartment. From the over-sized brown sofas to the hideously scarred walls, it is a part of the experience.

Bu hao.