viva

happy easter. not much happen except an awesome time with awesome new friends. I spent 250rmb this weekend. thats about 30 bucks. pretty disappointed in myself. i live too gluttonously on the weekends. but thats the only time that i can, so why not. This weeks food intake is as follows (as best as I can remember).

2 ikea hotdogs.
2 large pizza hut pep pizzas
2 mango milks
1 coke
1 cheese and ham sandwhich
1 beef and brock
1 fried rice
1 grapefruit juice
1 mcds icecream sundae
1 ikea ice cream

wow. i feel sick looking at that. its gross. all of the sudden, chinese food sounds super good. Tonight I ate with the Xie family. They own a corner store next to my house. THey are awesome. they teach me to cook the veggies and then we eat together. if you seen pictures as of late, they are Sprout's parents. Good people. Tonight we had chicken parts, beef and cabbage. it was awesome to just sit down with a random person and talk for a few hours. he's got some really cool things going on in life. life is so simple for him. family, the store, and friends. that's all he worries about. its great.

cell phone

i left my cellphone in a taxi today. drats.

wow

I just spent a week of my life with a very negative person, but his heart is good. He keeps those he loves close to him by saying negative things. His job is to find faults in the products of this company and get rid of them absolutly. He does this very very well, but its ruining him inside. He said only a few thing that had a positive spin for entire week I have been with him. I've noticed alot of negative people around me right now, and it just drains them. The fact that I've realized it has made me react to it better. I've been able to look at my own thoughts, words and actions alot more than I normally would. I came across this quote. Its helped me to put into words what I've felt.

“If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world...”-deepak chopra

Sorry for the philosophy, but I wanted to write this down somewhere useful.

poverty

hello.
been a while since i have written and so i thought i'd catch everyone up. I'm sitting in a room right now in a factory. This is the place where we can get online and do our work when we have some downtime. I've been asked to come to this factory and check our shipment that is going to be getting sent out soon. It's a pretty boring thing to do so far. We've mostly just sat around. We're staying in a hotel that's pretty standard. I don't know the name of this town that I'm in. I've heard it, but forgot it. I know that its on the border of the province, 400km from Shenzhen. THis is probably some of the greatest bits of poverty I've seen. Its amazing how the people here live is such low ways of life. If you were here, i'm pretty sure you'd be sickened by it. I've been here quite a while, but still am. There really is no hope for most these kids, and that's sad to me. If they don't work in a factory, the don't eat, and they die. That's the reality of it. There is zero government aid. Any buses that would get them out to a bigger city would cost half a months salary. The system has them stuck.

It's made me realize how well off I am. I go where I want to go. If I think I could or should do something, I do it. I really think America gave me that. I'm critical of the US government because I love it. When what it should do and what it does split ways, that's where the citizens step in. We have to speak up, if we don't, we lose. Here, they are dogmatic. The government is divine to them and they dare not question it. The few that do, have to do so in the shadows or a lowered voice. Its a terrible thing not to have free speech and speak your mind to a government that listens. As the economy opens, so does the governemnt. I hope in the years to come, the government here can open up more and more. I'd like to see a chinese kid travel to America, just because they want to.

chinese mullet

I've got my first chinese mullet. i was trying to go a long time without cutting my hair but i figured i'd just cut my hair. Only cost $.75 USD. nuts eh! well it's only worth about double that. But i've never really cared about hair. The kid that cut it was tripping out the entire time and said my hair was really soft. He said that chinese people hair is really thick.

Went and taught engrish at a little elementary school yesterday. It was good. The kids were really stoked for me to be there. Their teachers english isn't good. I feel bad for the education system in the country. Its basically helpless. 8 teachers for 400 kiddies.

I'm laying on my bed right now. I see 8 mosquitos.

adventures in food poisoning

i'm sick as a dog. didn't get much sleep due to the headaches and what not. i just sat in bed this morning from 3 to 7 wishing i was at home in my parents bed. funny thought for a 23 year old. so i took the day off. i did work from home. i got some stuff done that i needed to do. i still don't feel real well. for dinner i had a gatorade, lettuce and rice. Whatever I saw food wise just looked gross to me.

I'm still just amazed by how people stare at me. It's really weird. They just sit there and get all quiet and look at me and don't say much. Sometimes somebody might ask me a question like where I'm from or how tall I am. Some of these people have gone their entire life without seeing a foreigner. Amazing.

snakes

terrible idea. last night, a teacher from the local school wanted to take me out to dinner. i said ok. the idea was good right up til the point where they brought out the snake. Take my advise, if you need to survive, eat snake. If you are at some fancy diplomatic dinner and they have snake, try snake. But if your at some mom and pop place out in the middle of the nowhere, don't try the snake. Its been a harsh day today. Coke has been my best friend and i'm trying to relax as best I can. I think I've cleared my system pretty well, so let's see how well we can get through the night.

found out the most terrible place to get a mosquito bit. right on your big toe just next to the nail. i woke up with a painful foot last night at 4. somehow my right foot had ventured out of the mosquito net and was attacked.