The Chinese hate the Japanese with an absolute and unwavering passion. My students in Baoding would launch into emotional speeches of how evil and ruthless the Japanese men are, and how submissive and completely without rights the women. The attitude the Chinese have towards the Japanese goes far beyond the type of friendly rivalry or even a love-hate relationship that Finland and Sweden have -- no, this is far more serious.

On tuesday, Japan met Bahrain in the semifinals of the Asian Cup in football here in Jinan. Apparently, thousands of Chinese went crazy shouting 'Balin, balin!!' but in the end their support wasn't quite enough and --lord have mercy-- Japan won the game in the very last minute or so.

The same night, China fought it's way through in another game, played in Beijing, beating Iran.

And this, of course, means that the final will be, ***drumroll**** China and Japan!!! The big day is tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed all of you. I think I'd rather be surrounded by 1,3 billion drunken happy maniacs than as many murderous, vindictive, bloodthirsty madmen. So yeah, I think I'm rooting for China.

The plan for the weekend is to go check out a coastal city called Yantai in Shandong province. But maybe more about it later if we actually make it there and don't just sleep in and watch DVDs all weekend...