My girlfriend woke me today at 7:30, figuring I could sleep in half an hour with it being Spring Festival and all. I zombie strolled to the local hole in the wall veggie shop, sent out for cabbage, steamed buns, potato noodles, eggs and a mystery item written on scrap paper which turned out to be garlic. I gave my 11 kuai to the lady in pyjamas, who's always a little nervous or excited, I can't tell, when I show up. Lately I've been getting chinese cooking lessons 3 times per day from Ting. Mainly cuz I'm becoming more and more interested in Chinese cuisine but also because our creepy alcoholic roomate decided to move out (" so she could have "friends" over more often") which means I have to dish out an extra 400rmb a month. Roommate wanted btw.

Early morning walks I actually enjoy. Dishing out friendly "wassup" nods to the construction crews in camo, neighbours that have real jobs and the gate man. My city has 2 types of citizens it seems, the day job straight laced type or the people that wake up at 2p.m. to work the nightshift at the club or brothel or both. The cab drivers just don't sleep.

After another simple yet satisfying breakfast I did the dishes, fed my fish, checked my Facebook page and played Neo Contra while my gf did whatever women do in the morning. We decided our goal for the day was to steal some badminton rackets from my elemantary school and eat fire chicken at La La La or "Spicy Spicy Spicy". I used to think I was hardcore when it came to eating hot food but now I bow my head in shame as He Ting picks the chillies out of my plate and dips my chicken in hot water to kick it down a notch.

The elementary school is a strange place. There's an apartment for foreign teachers which was occupied by my really good and badly missed friend, Steph. Now it's just Cathy. Cathy is a senile 55 year old from one of those hard to spell Toronto suburbs. She's also the coolest most down to earth foreigner I've known here. She ran out of meds a while ago because her bf, now ex-bf, wouldn't fork out 800$. I think she's lost 80 pounds since I first met her in september. You would be surprised what eating vegetables 3 time a day can do for a person. Anyway if you go to the school you got to stop by to say hi or else you feel like a prick afterwards. She was doing what I expected she was going to be doing, smoking and drinking a beer on her patio with my friend Gary. Gary is the 30 year old elementary gym teacher whose married and pretty damn handsome yet we are all positive is having an affair with Cathy. Props to Cathy but we are all confused and creeped out every time we intrude on these two. They were sitting too close in the midst of an english lesson with obvious sexual connotations. He Ting and I grab the rackets and said we had to be somewhere else.

After an intense game of badminton (she's better) I was givin my first dumpling lesson. It was lengthy but rewarding, especially because I'm going to take a break from this blog post and boil some more that I left in the freezer. It's just a cool feeling making something that people were making the same way, 1500 years ago. Did I ever mention my city is 2000 years old and used to be an important dynasty capital. It's been destroyed so many times that all the temples and such have been rebuilt so many times they're hardly worth seeing.

Once the sun went down we waited for the firework show which has been going on for 4 days now and will go on for another 9. In 2002 the government banned them because of the high rate of limb and vision loss. Luckily for me 2 years ago they said "hey, whats a few infant arms, it's f'en spring festival dude". It's insane. Amagine every hotel, club, restaurant, rich household and community hall in Edmonton buying enough fireworks to last 15 nights. I've never witnessed anything like this. The grandfather's help the toddlers light ear deafening firecrackers that make my calm retirement home feel like Iraq. The sky is lit up in every direction with colorful explosions. When my neighborhood did our part it literally rained ashes that tasted bad.

He Ting went to bed at 8:30 and I just finished 2 hours of Neo Contra. I'm on my way to filling a 100cd booklet of ps2 games, which are about 15 cents a piece at a hush hush place a student introduced me to.

This is a quick example of a normal day off for me in China. Currently I'm anticipating the arrival of my skateboard, reading an amazing book about Tokyo (frowned upon) called Number 9 Dream, and dreading the start of the new semester.

Thanks for all the comments!