"Maintain Social Stability..." while doing laundry
"frictions and problems of various kinds ... can only be settled in an orderly manner by abiding by the law and with a sober mind."
No mention of the protests.
Today was laundry day! I also cleaned up my pigsty of a room. You know, I should sue the chinese advertisement company that made the add for this Lonon handheld vacuum cleaner. There is a giant billboard down by the Bus Station of Eric Tsang, hilarious chubby hong kong actor, holding up 4 10lb bowling balls with a pitchforked vacuum hose using the model I have. DAMNIT! This thing won't even pick up the small chips of wall that fall on the floor when I punch the Air Conditioner to stop making noise. What a hunk of crap.
I went out to buy a pair of new shoes today. I wore the soles out on the pair that I brought to China. There were holes in the soles and I seems that I have a tendency to be walking on the outsides of my feet, so most of the wear is on the outside part of the shoe. And the past few days the muscles in my left leg have been quite sore because of wearing these shoes, too small slippers, and then running long distances afterward. Hopefully the new shoes and lack of slippers helps clear it up tomorrow.
They are a nice pair of shoes. Casual yet nice. Not sneakers or sport shoes. They are kinda like my old ones, but not as big and clunky. i was really hoping to get a pair of Velcro shoes though. They have a bunch here. They got 3 straps. Totally rad. Only problem was that they hurt my feet while I tried them on. Icky. They were really cheap though...its a shame. I had also found a kickin' pair of two tones. They look like sadle shoes, only the black and whites are reversed. I totally need to get those. Very nice and shiny and pantenty leather. I will go back and pick them up later sometime.
As I was walking home from getting a Sundae at McDonald's, I walked by a hilarious T-Shirt. "HEAVY METAL Guitar Hero". YES!!! TOTALLY NEED IT! TOTALLY BOUGHT IT! Its light green with white letters. And its kinda thin and it looks as though the hood was cut off, but it still has the hoody pulls on it. Super funny. Totally rocking.
One thing that really did upset me today was this. Yumi and I purchased tickets to go to Shanghai yesterday. And I have been asking her many times, "Do you think Shanghai will be fine considering all that has been going on?" I wanted to make sure she was ok with going to Shanghai. She always said "Yes, I want to go to Shanghai." So, I said ok. I still felt that the protests will be over by then. This morning she Instant Messages me and says she just spoke with her Japanese Language superior about her trip to Shanghai and the teacher told her that "Shanghai is the most dangerous place to visit for you right now." So now, she is all worried and wants to change tickets to go somewhere else. !!!!!!!! Why didn't you talk to them before we bought the tickets. You knew what our plan was and you knew the issues facing us. I was so irritated. She then said that on a Japanese news website they have a protest planned in Shanghai on May 4th. How the japanese news site got this information, I have no clue. There are prolly tons of warnings aimed at the japanese from their news organizations and government. It looks as though these things won't be dying down anytime soon.
So, now, we are discussing where else we can go. I am thinking most likely Wu-dang Shan, by Wuhan. The mountain is famous for the Taoist monks who built places into the sides of the moutnain. And they are also famous for Wu-dang Gong Fu. Most Americans know the term "Wu-Tang". Old movies and a real crappy rap group carry that name.
Yumi came over this evening to help brainstorm places to go and we didn't get anywhere cause she could offer no suggestions. I was searching all around for information on getting to the Wudangshan, but I only found hints at travel options. Basically you have to fly into Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, and then either take a 7 hour bus ride or a 12 hour train ride. I can only find one hotel online for the city of Wudangshan and the main city 50 minutes away, Shiyan. Great! It looks like I can't really plan for this trip. But I guess that is the adventure of travelling thru China. Like the Lonely Planet Website said, "China isn't just a different country, its a whole different world." Yumi had class at 8pm and I was so frustrated with the trip planning, lack of useful info, and sore leg that I didn;t go to practice, so I vegged out the rest of the nite and looked up some more info before I went to bed. I informed Yumi about our options in Wudangshan and other things. Hopefully we can take care of this business tomorrow. sleep well.