Phil and Red's Excellent Adventure

I woke up this morning really tired because I had only about 3 hours of sleep. It had rained during the night. Now there is this intense fog covering everything around us, like a cold, wet down-quilt. Its condensing on everything. This made it quite interesting at the Bowen School because for some reason, the Chinese love to make all their buildings covered in tiles so they get dirty really easily. The entire school is covered in tile as well as the floor. All the fog had condensed on the tile floor making it very slippery. By mid-afternoon, the floor looked as if it was under a layer of water. This is quite dangerous. The Chinese aren’t as paranoid as Americans are about safety. I have seen many things that would turn into lawsuits in the States. And for anyone who likes to have fun, dangerous = fun. So, all the kids, including me, were running and sliding all over the place. Before you yell at me and tell me, “Maybe you shouldn’t do it since you are an authority figure and the kids will imitate what you do.” I will tell you that I imitated the kids. They were the ones that got me hooked. So there. I said it. I videotaped it…it was quite humorous. The classes today pretty much stunk. The Chinese teacher only was present for about 80% of the first 2 classes and was non-existent during the second two. Fudge-cicle. After Camp was over we headed home. And of course our time was not cared about or considered and it was wasted.
On the way home we were watching internet downloads of Dr. Katz and Dave Chapelle Show. It was quite humorous. I got back around 730pm and I called Yumi to let her know I would stop over around 830pm. She is heading back to Japan for the Chinese New Year. She will be gone for about 3 weeks. Her Japanese friend who works in Shenzhen will go with her, so I get to meet her as well. I knock on Yumi’s door and her friend Noriko opens up. She is all excited and bubbly. I am like, “Hello. How are you?” She was responding with happy shrieks. She proceeded to run around in a circle and jump up and down speaking incomprehensible Japanese. “Jeez, you act as you have never seen a white person before.”
“Yes.” Yumi spoke from behind the door, “Well, she’s never met one.” I find that odd because Japan is saturated with white people…I thought. Oh well. We all chatted for a bit. Noriko was trying to remember some English to speak to me. She kept opening up that little computer dictionary that they all carry. It was funny. However, I didn't laugh at her when she tried to speak English and would speak broken English as others laugh at me when I try to speak Chinese or Japanese. I guess not everyone tries to follow the Golden Rule.
While I was there, Michelle, my Sifu’s daughter, called me and spoke to me a bit. She said there was a big meeting about the upcoming lion-dance performances on Sunday at 6pm. She was telling me to come. “Too bad Michelle, I will be stuck in ShiQi against my will until 730pm.” It took me about five minutes to explain to her that I wouldn’t be able to come, but that I could be at practice at 8pm. This confused her to no end. When she finally did understand that I wouldn’t make 6pm, she said, “Uh oh…that’s very bad. Ok. Ok. I will see you. Bye bye.” It was an interesting conversation.
After chillin’ with Yumi and Noriko I headed and now I am heading to bed. Goodnite.