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Life Goes On... and on...

8 October 2007

I wish global warming would hurry up and get here!  I'm freezing to death already, and winter hasn't even started yet.  We are getting the end effects of the latest typhoon to hit the Chinese coast and Taiwan, and the weather is terrible to say the least.  Been raining - a wind blown rain - for the past two days and that wind is cold.   Reckon that I spent too much time in the heat of Thailand.  My blood must have really thinned out.  Most of the students aren't wearing jackets and here I am trying to find me a goose down jacket.  Thankfully the heaters in the apartment are working very well! 

The students have come back to prison - err - school after being gone for a week for National Day.  A week off with pay is always nice - but I am thinking that I would really like to work a bit.  The 10.5 hours a week that I am working is leaving me with just too much free time.  Reckon that I'm going to have to make a trip over to the library and see what they have there for entertainment.  I have heard that they have a good selection of English books and reading material.  Can't remember if I was in a library or a church last...  All that I remember is that it sounded like the roof was going to come crashing down upon my shoulders. 

Work has always fascinated me. I can sit and watch other people do it for hours on end.  In fact, I am so comfortable around work that I can even lay down and sleep right next to it.  Outside my apartment, 9 floors down, they are building "something."  No one has quite figured out what it is that they are building, but they start building about 7:00 AM - 7 days a week.  Often, they don't quit until "dark thirty."  But, still, despite the construction noise, I can sleep like a baby early in the morning - and during my nap later on in the day. The first two pictures on the right will hold interest only for those folks in Thailand, or those that have been there out in the country on the rice farms. These are converted Iron Buffalos that are being used in the building process here as dump trucks.  For the un-informed, the Iron Buffalo took the place of the live buffalo in Thailand for use in the farm, and is like a multi-purpose tractor that one either walks behind or rides behind depending on the use.  It is also used as a water pump to pump water into the rice fields.  Very versatile little machine to say the least.

As stated, no one can quite figure out what they are building - but they sure are building it.  First they dug a big pit.  Then they poured the concrete in three different passes.  Notice the stone work in the forefront. What is interesting about the stone work is that it was all done by hand - and back power.  The stones were dumped up above the pit and then carried by the workers down into the pit and set on the pile.  In the bottom right side of the picture you can see two of the workers carrying a stone between them, slung on a bamboo pole.  After the stones have been put in place, then it is time to set them in concrete.  Once again, the concrete is transported down to the stone pile by hand and back power - with each worker carrying two hods of concrete - each one holding about 6 shovel fulls of concrete.  No sense in using machinery to do stuff.  Labor is much cheaper.  I hate to think of what those guys earn a month - but I'm sure it isn't very much - probably about $250 per month or less.  Mind you - that is for 7 days a week - weather permitting and probably around 10 to 11 hours a day.

Just a small bit of trivia at this point.  Apparently the wheel barrow was invented by the Chinese.  Now you know who to cuss out the next time you have to use one.

Of course, with the miserable weather here the last couple of days, everyone is kind of holed up in their respective apartments.  We are now down to two television stations - that work most of the time.  One is a Japanese station and the other one is BBC.  The Chinese station comes and goes much like a bad cold. CNN has been off for about two and a half weeks now.  They said that we "might" get some more channels after the University gets officially accredited.  Apparently after moving to the new campus, they have to go through the full accreditation process for each individual campus - despite the fact that the older campuses are still operational.  Each campus has a big "countdown timer" by the main entrance to remind people how much longer it is until Beijing pays a visit to the campuses.  I believe it is now something like 23 days - but I'm not really concerned about it.  I suspect that we will start seeing a bit of panic going on when it is down to 5 days or less. 

So, with us all more or less "locked up" there is a bit of boredom with everyone.  The paranoid-delusional teacher (Letter 5) who is also the one that claimed that all of his students hated him because of me, is apparently worse off than the rest of us.  He is now wandering around trying to find someone to play chess with or just to talk to him.  He snuck up on one of the other teachers the other day and started telling him about a car that runs on water.  Important rule to remember:  Always keep your apartment door closed and locked.  You never know what will wander in. 

If you like fireworks - which I do - China is definitely the place for you.  Almost every night you can see a bit of a fireworks show someplace, usually close by.  No permits are needed apparently - so all you have to do is go out and buy your boxes of fireworks and start setting them off.  On the main street that goes past The Captain's Bar (where I have been known to go for happy hour on Fridays and Saturdays) there is usually a fairly large fireworks show sometime during the evening.  Yes - right in the street!  They line the boxes up along the fence separating the bike path from the traffic path and set a match to them.  The traffic just gives them a bit of a wider berth.  The police just drive on by.  No one complains, I suppose, because fireworks have a dual purpose.  One is to celebrate something - a birthday, business opening or whatever.  The other is to scare off the evil spirits.  To me, if someone complained about them, they would be an "evil spirit," so I reckon that it does work.  If I'd known about that attribute for them, I might not ever have gotten married.  Of course, if you want to try that theory out in a Western Country I can guarantee you that you will see an "evil spirit" or two.  They are called the police...

I have discovered an anomolie here.  Chinese girls don't mind buying drinks for someone.  Last week had two different girls call me and invite me out.  Didn't really want to go out, but when they told me that they would buy me my drinks, I reconsidered.  Was a good way to break the boredom and do something different.  It ain't easy being me.

That's about all for this time around.  Things have been quiet - and until I get acclimated to the weather here, or buy some warm clothes - they will continue to be quiet here.  Don't have any more holidays until Christmas, which is also China's Constitution Day. 

The Old Codger

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