feeling better.

I feel good today. I've finally got that cold on the run. Whatever was in those tubes that contained ginkogalobia something that tasted like peanut butter, well they worked. I guess a 4,000 year old culture can teach us a good many thing. Its still bitter cold. I bet some of you have heard about the big fuss over at the train station in Guangzhou.

Thats about 2 hours away from me. The problem isn't here in our city, its all around us. We have a huge hub of migrant workers here and they all want to go home, its just everything is frozen. There is nowhere to go. The weather has been rainy and terribly cold here for the last few days, all I can think about is the prospect of it getting warmer. The people at the trainstation, however, have one thing not to complain about. I'll tell you a secret that they won't tell you on CNN. The trainstation is 100 yards from IKEA and McD's. So you can bet that they are eating $.50 hotdogs, $1 Cinnybuns, $.99 mcchickens and all the meat balls you can desire. So if I was there, which I am glad I'm not, I'd have at least a happy stomach.

But I really feel for the people there. Its pretty much Christmas and they really want to go home for the 2 weeks a year they don't have to work. Its a pretty bleak existance here for the most part and for most people. They find happiness is slight ways that we don't even think about. The old people that live outside our office just sit around and wait for something semi interesting to happen. When we unload a box from a truck that has a furniture sample or something they all gather around like its Christmas morning. They watch us unwrap it, sometimes one of them will sneak off with a big piece of styrofoam or a box. They then really sheepishly will touch the finish and talk about it amongst each other. Sometimes I can coax the leader of the pack to sit down on the seat, he'll approve with a big "EYEOOOO" and the crowd will chatter away. They really are just a tight community here.

Today I was walking back from somewhere and they were next door playing cards. All these old men just sitting around smoking. We're talking real old here. I stepped in, to their delight, and watched. One of them kinda scanned one eye over in my direction while keeping the other on his hand and whispered, "brother..."he paused and swang the other eye over to look at me in the face"...its pretty cold outside". With a smirk, he winked and gave me a little nod. I gave the nod back, and slipped back into work. It's that type of sharing nothing more than a smile and saying a few words that makes this place so different.

It was a good day today.