and more

Another thing that I forgot to mention is the fact that not only do I not need to pay for staying at the temple, but they actually gave me money! Today the master handed out 100 yuan for everyone (a lot, when you don't spend anything on food or living), including me... I felt really bad taking it and put the money later in the temple money box, but i think it's really amazing that they would actually want to give ME money, it should be the other way around!!

I wish I could post some pictures to let you see this place, but I haven't beem able to access my photo website for about a month now. Any luck for you outside of China???
--
_______________________________________________
Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages
http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10

Monks eat mooncakes, too

First of all, THANK YOU, KIITOS, and MERCI for everyone who sent me birthday wishes, they truly made me smile, it's great to know that all of you wonderful people are out there :) I'm so lucky to have you in my life.

Right now I have no chance to reply everyone's email, as I have to get back soonish, but I'll try to come online about once a week as long as I'm staying at the temple, maybe next time I'll have more time.

So I'm back on the mountain again, Jiuhua Shan, that is. It is such an amazingly beautiful place, to see the sun set over the valley below, to see the birds flying in the green forest all around, to walk outside in bright moonlight...

I've been staying at the temple now for a few days, and life is getting to follow its own rhythm. Earlier onn the same day that I arrived, the Master (or Shifu) also arrived with five disciples of his. With old Ru Yuan, and the other older disciple, and Bao Yu who is the cook, we are now all together 10 people living at the temple.

My life here is funny in a way, it's like there are two sides to it almost. On one side, with all the new people, Shifu is trying to establish a proper temple life, with its schedules, rules and practises. And it's strict, a lot of the time it feels like everyone is skulking around, trying not to make mistakes and being afraid of getting a scolding.

On the other hand, it's all so peaceful and beautiful, I can just sit outside in the sun and in the quiet, reading a book or just thinking my thoughts, with no worries or no hurry -- just what I wanted.

As I'm not a buddhist and I'm an outsider in many ways anyway, I am treated with a lot more leniency than the others. That means that I don't have to do any of the work (although I try to find a way to help when I can -- but often they won't let me!) and i don't have to follow all the rules. Shifu was giving everyone a lecture about their duties, and my duties are just to learn about Chinese culture and history, try to learn more Chinese, observe the temple life and the traditions. He is trying to find me some books about Chinese history in English, so I can learn more.

And, in addition, I am required to take part in the morning and evening prayers, which in practise are reciting of Buddhist scriptures (once again it amazes me how they can recite an hour's worth of old text, very quickly and following a strict rhythm and intonation). This means that I get up at 4:30 am like everyone else, wash my face, brush my teeth and put on a long black robe. Then in the main temple room, we stand all in out own place, with a little prayer cushion in front of everyone. they then recite the texts, keeping the rhythm with different percussion instruments. And every now and then we have to bow down, or change the position of the hands from cupped palms to joined palms. Needless to say, I don't understand much of it, but Shifu asked me just to participate, even if I don't understand.

In the past three days, however, Shifu has been angry a lot, and he is taking it out on one disciple in particular. This poor guy has made just a few mistakes, not putting the things in the right place, or serving the food the wrong way, or chanting the wrong scriptures.... And three times a day for three days now, after meals or prayers, Shifu has given him (and at the same time the rest of us) a long lecture, and sometimes a real shouting. This means that all of us have to stand or sit, with our hands nicely in front of us, and just get through it. Which is not all that easy for me always, after a couple of hours (and it has lasted for hours at a time!!!) of standing in the same position, with the hands held joined in front of me, my shoulders ache and I just start thinking about having to go to the loo. Especially when I don't understand much of what he says...

Today, he gave the poor bloke a good beating, too, I could just hear them upstairs, the guy was screaming out loud, and when he came down for lunch afterwards, his face was all red and bruised. Ouch.

And then, towards me shifu is the sweetest, nicest guy, helping me with everything. I can see how he is trying to control his disciples, trying to get them to follow his way and humble them into feeling small. But for me, he just tells me about Chinese culture, asks me about finland...

Yesterday it was Mid-Autumn festival here in China, the 15th of the 8th month in the lunar calendar. Nobody knew it was my birthday, but I got a celebration anyway, as after the evening prayers we took a big table outside, full of cakes and fruit and nuts, and we sat out in the bright, bright light of the full moon, eating and talking. Old Ru Yuan was telling stories of when she was living alone on the mountain... It really was a beautiful and different birthday :)

A lot of things to tell, but this is getting too long so I will stop here. I don't know how long I will stay here, maybe for 10 or 20 days or a month -- don't know. But right now I really don't miss getting back to dingy hotel rooms, bus and train stations and carrying my backpack. I am perfectly happy here on the green mountain, spending my days sitting in the sunshine :)

Once again, thank you everyone, it means a lot to me to know you are all out there. I'll try to get time to write emails soon....
--
_______________________________________________
Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages
http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10

Nori

I forgot to say thanks to you for your comment, it's always great to hear from people out there who are reading. Definitely company time well spent, say I! ;-)

Appearances

Kaifeng, Henan.

Maybe I've been drinking too much green tea. Or maybe it's the noodles and the soy sauce eggs. Or the fact that I have given up changin my clothes all the time like a laowai, and have joined the ranks of the locals and can now go for quite a long time with the very same clothing. Or possibly it's the choppy haircut. But it must be something that's happening to me, as in the past few days, on a few occasions I have been taken to be Chinese!! It's never happened to me before, as I think I quite obviously look foreign, but for some reason now I have had people ask me if I'm Chinese or foreign. And today, I heard a girl and a boy talking as i walked back, with the girl remarking that "she really doesn't look like a foreigner". The explanation has been that they have thought that maybe I was from Xinjiang in the west of China, where the people belong to a different ethnic group from the majority of the Han people. But still, I must say, I don't think I even look like a Xingjianer...

In any case, I hope this will make my life a little easier by blending me in with the crowd, maybe reduce the number of 'hello' jokes and even bring down the prices to a local level!

Just remember that the next time I come for a visit, just look for the Chinese girl, that'll be me...

Ear Wax and Bumpy Roads

Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province.

I've spent the past two days in this grimy city, nothing particular about it, rather it's an ugly and dirty place with nothing interesting to it (nothing that i've seen, anyway). But I'm just passing through, so no use to write more about this place.

But let me tell you a little more about the joys of travelling in China. Taking a bus from Jiuhua Mountain to Hefei was another of those worse kind of Chinese trips. To me it seems that pretty much I'm either travelling in perfect comfort if not even luxury, or I'm cramped in some smelly box...

This time it was closer to the latter. There were way too many of us crammed into this bus, so many that there were people standing and sitting on little plastic stools in the isle. My lot was to be sitting on the back seat, which could have quite nicely fit 5 people. But of course the 6th one had to push in, too, so that all of us just about had our knees in our mouths. And next to me just had to be sitting this Chinese gorilla, with a huge body and huge head. When he was dozing off, with his head hanging in front of him, I'd be terrified every time the bus would steer left, as his sweatty body would crush onto mine. And to give the trip a final touch, the road was really bumpy, which was magnified by sitting at the back of the bus -- and of course I had to go to the toilet really bad!

But as for something else, remember I told you about having my ears cleaned at the hairdressers? Well, half an hour ago passing by a park I saw a professional ear-cleaner! He was there with all his instruments, in the process of giving another guy a full cleaning, I suppose. Just imagine the scenario in a Chinese primary school: The teacher asks, 'so, litte Dong Ming, what does your dad do?' '-he's a bus driver' 'What about you, little Mei Hua?' ' -Oh, my dad is an ear-cleaner.'

Hmmm.

Another sunrise, another mountain.

Jiuhua Shan, one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China lies at the north of the Anhui province. I made my way here, first taking a train from ShaoXing to Hangzhou, and then another one tp a town called Wuhu here in Anhui. The train to WuHu is what Olli would have called a 'cattle train', a smelly, rusty, dirty thing, with some hard benches and waaaay too many people. The differences here are sometimes striking, changing from the clean and modern train i took from ShaoXing to the next one from Hangzhou, was like a leap to another world.

But, on the 7 hours journey I had the chance to get into some amusing conversations again. I was surrounded by some merchants, who had been in Hangzhou selling their things to tourists, and they, led by one especially loud and brave one, began to question me about all the usual things and more. The usual things normally include: where i'm from, what's Finland like, what's my job, how much I get paid, how easy was it for me to come to China, how much do things cost in Finland, where have I been in China, am I able to eat Chinese food and what do people eat in Finland. This last point, after my explaining the 'no rice but potatoes' thing to them, became a real joke. They found it very funny that a vegetable could be the staple food, and found a way to get potatoes into just about every sentence.

In Wuhu I stayed in a little crappy guest house in a back alley near the train station. The way you find these is that there are always stouts at the station, waiting for the arriving passengers, who will then take you to their place. The guy I followed this time looked half mad, with crossed eyes and a bizarre appearance, but I trusted my luck anyway and went with him.

But the problem wasn't him or his place. However, on the way there, when we stopped to register my arrival at the police officers of the block (apparently they wrote down the details of every person staying at one of the guesthouses), I noticed thatthe zipper of my little day backpack was open. I have no idea how that happened in the few minutes from the station, especially when i had it in front of me, but someone had been really fast when i didn't look. But, luckily they didn't get anything important or of value, having randomly reached in their catch was a half-empty water bottle and my dictionary. My camera, wallet, phone etc were all still there. Mind you, it was a good dictionary that I only found a couple of weeks ago, actually having translitterations and pronunciations of all words and not just characters!

But, here I am now, on this mountain. There's a little village with mountains on all sides of it. Peaceful and beautiful, no cars, just pilgrims. And temples everywhere. According to my books, there are about 70 functioning temples here, they are in the village and dotted all over the surrounding mountains, where you can get by stairways and little footpaths.

After staying at the temple on DongTianMuShan I thought that I really am not interested in taking a deeper plunge into Buddhism now, so I thought I'd just come here to look around and enjoy the nature for a few days. On DTMS, I really felt a little trapped, and controlled by all the rules, like there was only *ONE* way of doing things right.

But what do you know, when I was walking on the mountain today, having crossed to the other side of the mountain from the village, I stopped at a little house to take a rest, eat some cakes and read my book, taking in the gorgeous view of the valley beneath me. And so comes this monk (holding his Nokia 3310!) to talk to me. He lives in the place, with two students of his, a 74-year old woman and a 33-year-old woman. They invited me inside, and I talked with the master (what an inappropriate word this is in English, as the Chinese term - shifu- is much softer, meaning teacher-father) about this and that, about travelling and different countries and so on. And I stayed for lunch, the women prepared an amazing feast for us.

And at this place, my feeling was really really different. I felt free and relaxed, I laughed and joked with the Shifu:) And no such rules of eating just like this or sitting just like that, everyone was just being friends and being themselves.

So, the Shifu said that if I want I can come to stay there with them, to study some Chinese language and culture with them, and learn to cook Chinese dishes (after I told them I'd really like to learn to cook like the women!), and even teach him English if I wanted (he can speak a little). And if I had some questions about Buddhism or anything else, I could ask him if I wanted.

So, I need to go away for some time, a couple of weeks or so, but probably after that I will come back and stay here a little while. It really seems like a place where I can just relax and take my time to learn more about China and its culture.

--
_______________________________________________
Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages
http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10

Here's something interesting: getting a haircut in China. I went in for one yesterday here in Shaoxing.

(I was hoping to undo some of the damage of the previous cuts, and get rid of the choppy chinese look, but no success... Although I kept saying to the guy that I want then all the same lenght, and he even repeated it and said, ok ok, i want layer the that much then, he still did it. But that's the style here and I guess he just couldn't conceive of the fact that i'd want something totally different from all the other cuts he's done in the past few years... so i gave in and just went for the Chinese choppy choppy look)

The fun part of a haircut is everything else that comes with it. First, you get a really nice shampooing (sitting in the barber's chair) and a head massage, for a long time. Just love it. And then, I was treated to a full head massage (even ears!!), followed by a shoulder, arm and hand massage. And then, get this, she even cleaned my ears!! I was glad to have cleaned them just before myself though, how embarrassing would it have been to have her find out how gooey foreign ears can be...

Today, for the umpteenth time I was again reminded of the wonderful warm-heartedness of the people here. I decided to head out to do some sightseeing at a lake here. On the bus, I met a university student, who first took me to her home and then helped me find the way to the lake.

At the lake, I met the sweetest old Chinese couple from Hangzhou, both retired teachers. We talked and walked together at the lake, and then they invited me to go together with them to another famous spot, this temple area, built for a famous historical figure (a guy who designed some canal and flood projects hundreds of years ago). And so I did, and we spent a lovely afternoon together, exploring the place, eating biscuits, cakes and fruit and talking about this and that. And as the husband used to be a Chinese teacher, he was testing my Chinese skills and teaching me some more.

It's funny though, the language here is *COMPLETELY* different from the Chinese spoken in the north (Mandarin, that is, in English). I really can't understand a word of what they are saying. today, the wife couldn't speak mandarin so the husband actually had to translate for her. He spoke mandarin perfectly, of course, being a Chinese teacher and having studied in Beijing.

I'd love to post some pictures, but the site isn't working so it will have to wait.

Tomorrow I'm probably off, heading up north-west, thinking of going to visit a sacred mountain in Anhui province, to get into the peace and quiet of the countryside again. But then again, I might change my mind on the way ;)

Will write again, whenever I have the chance. Not sure when that will be though...Here's something interesting: getting a haircut in China. I went in for one yesterday here in Shaoxing.

(I was hoping to undo some of the damage of the previous cuts, and get rid of the choppy chinese look, but no success... Although I kept saying to the guy that I want then all the same lenght, and he even repeated it and said, ok ok, i want layer the that much then, he still did it. But that's the style here and I guess he just couldn't conceive of the fact that i'd want something totally different from all the other cuts he's done in the past few years... so i gave in and just went for the Chinese choppy choppy look)

The fun part of a haircut is everything else that comes with it. First, you get a really nice shampooing (sitting in the barber's chair) and a head massage, for a long time. Just love it. And then, I was treated to a full head massage (even ears!!), followed by a shoulder, arm and hand massage. And then, get this, she even cleaned my ears!! I was glad to have cleaned them just before myself though, how embarrassing would it have been to have her find out how gooey foreign ears can be...

Today, for the umpteenth time I was again reminded of the wonderful warm-heartedness of the people here. I decided to head out to do some sightseeing at a lake here. On the bus, I met a university student, who first took me to her home and then helped me find the way to the lake.

At the lake, I met the sweetest old Chinese couple from Hangzhou, both retired teachers. We talked and walked together at the lake, and then they invited me to go together with them to another famous spot, this temple area, built for a famous historical figure (a guy who designed some canal and flood projects hundreds of years ago). And so I did, and we spent a lovely afternoon together, exploring the place, eating biscuits, cakes and fruit and talking about this and that. And as the husband used to be a Chinese teacher, he was testing my Chinese skills and teaching me some more.

It's funny though, the language here is *COMPLETELY* different from the Chinese spoken in the north (Mandarin, that is, in English). I really can't understand a word of what they are saying. today, the wife couldn't speak mandarin so the husband actually had to translate for her. He spoke mandarin perfectly, of course, being a Chinese teacher and having studied in Beijing.

I'd love to post some pictures, but the site isn't working so it will have to wait.

Tomorrow I'm probably off, heading up north-west, thinking of going to visit a sacred mountain in Anhui province, to get into the peace and quiet of the countryside again. But then again, I might change my mind on the way ;)

Will write again, whenever I have the chance. Not sure when that will be though...
--
_______________________________________________
Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages
http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10

And here is Part 2 for my mega-long post of today. See Part 1 below...

I really didn't know what to expect from the ZhaoMing temple, but I was looking forward to the change, and getting away from cities. After a 16-hour train ride to Hangzhou from Beijing (where I met a nice British bloke at the train station and we had lunch together before I took off), and a 2-hour car ride from Hangzhou to the town of Ling An, a lunch with some Buddhist people there (including the 'big boss' of the temple - don't know what to call her, the one on top anyway! And i didn't even understand what an honour it was to eat with her...), it took another hour or so to drive to the Dong Tian Mu Shan mountain.

The road found its way through pretty little villages (how nice the houses here look compared to the barracks of the north!!!) and paddy fields. Finally, after driving up to maybe halfway of the mountain, we were left at the foot of a long stairway, me and the old lady with whom I had shared the ride. we were joined by a young woman, who lives at the temple, wearing her simple clothes and short and carrying a basket on her back. And so we made our way up the mountain, it took about an hour, all the time looking over the beautiful valley, and passing waterfalls and gorgeous cliffs.

The temple was only founded six years ago, and it's still being built. What is there now are dormitory buildings, a big hall for the 'services', a big dining hall, offices, and so on. Some more *temples* are still under construction. And it's not exactly simple to build something so massive on a top of mountain, with no road coming up. That means that everything has to be carried up, every single sack of cement and every brick... it's amazing the work these people are doing every day.

I was told that at any given time tyhere are about 700 people staying at the temple, both monks and nuns as well as a lot of lay persons. About 300 people are visitors, and many lay persons also live their for a longer period. Most of the people staying there as visitors were rather old, although a few young people had come, too. Needless to say, I was the only foreigner.

I was put up at a guest house for 'special' guests, where all the foreigners are systematically lodged. I tried to get them let me stay in the dorms with everyone else, but it was no use... There were no other guests in the house at the time, so it was only me and the two women who lived there, taking care of the guests and the place.

The first one, Old Wang (who was just called Lao Pu Sa, Lao meaning old and Pusa meaning a holy person or a boddhisattva), is 64 years old, from Beijing. She comes from a Buddhist family, and a few months ago left her family to come to the temple. She was really looking after me, literally showing me by the hand what to do and how, and pushing and pulling me here and there. She was a little scary at times, and I was afraid to do something to make her angry (she used to come and re-do everything after me anyhow in the beginning, move my shoes 2 cm to the left and so on...). But in the end, she was so so sweet, just holding my hand and smiling with her whole person, telling stories.

The second one, Little Wang (oh the joy of Chinese surnames!) is 33 and comes from Shandong. She was once married, and then divorced. And after a lot of heartache, money and health problems, she met a teacher who brought her to Pure Land Buddhism. And so, just a couple of weeks ago, she secretly left her home (her family wouldn't have agreed) and made her way alone to the mountain. Where she is now living happily :) She spent a lot of time, explaining things to me, both about their beliefs and practices, as well as practical things which she couldn't have mentioned in front of Old Wang, things that I was doing wrong.

And oh boy was I doing things wrong. All the time I kinda had the feeling that there are so many rules, and I managed to break quite a few of them. For example, putting a Buddhist book on a chair (that's where the bum goes!!), forgetting to change my shoes to slippers when bowing down in front of Amitabha, eating at the wrong moment, not combing my hair opr washing my hands before chanting, or even having my bum too high when i bowed down in front of Amitabha (as Lao Pusa kindly pointed out)!

On my first night at the temple, Old Wang brought me to the main hall for the evening chanting. Every morning, afternoon, and evening people go to the hall, wearing long dark robes, to chant 'Amituofo' (which is the Chinese version of the name of Amitabha) while walking in a slow procession, in a 'snake' through the room and between the cushions on the floor. First the monks, then the nuns, then the other mena and finally the women. One round through the room took about 15 minutes, depending of course how many people would be there.

On that first night, I was first taken to the front of the room, to pay obeisances to Amitabha Buddha. So, I had to kneel down in front of him, pressing my head down to the floor. Lots and lots of times. It took me a little while to get it right, with the hands doing the right motion. But after a few dozen repetitions it wasn't that bad anymore! (yes, kept my bum down, too...) Then we sat down (supposedly to meditate upon Amitabha), after which we joined the procession for a couple of hours.

In the mornings, we would wake up at 2 or 3 a.m., and then go down for the morning chanting until about 5 a.m. Although I didn't really believe in the chanting as the others (i guess) did, it was kinda nice, very soothing, and a chance for me to just practise concentration. Two hours went by amazingly fast.

And it's funny how i wasn't tired at all, even though i woke up so early, and had no problems getting up. Maybe it was the fresh mountain air, or maybe it was Amitabha ;)

Throughout the day and the night, the loundspeakers of the main hall would blast out the chanting of Amituofo, you really can't get away from it. And when it would stop, they would broadcast speeches by their big teacher, Master Chin Kung ( www.chinkung.org ) . And as if that wasn't enough, they even gave me a little 'Amituofo radio', which plays foure different kinds of chanting in a loop. :-)

But despite all the mistakes I made, I quickly learned to keep saying 'Amituofo' (which replaced 'thank you',
I'm sorry', 'hello', and so on...) and to bring my palms together whenever meeting someone. The people truly were warmhearted and welcoming.

But to me the best thing was the chance to be on my own, spend time reading, writing, thinking... And what I liked the most was climbed up the mountain a little, to a point where I could sit down and look over the green green valley and the sea of clouds and mountains in different shades of blue as far I could see, hearing the sound of the waterfall in the distance.

I would have a thousand other things to tell about my days at the mountain temple, but this is getting too long already. So I'll just conclude by saying that in the end, although I could have stayed for as long as I wanted, for months if that would have been the case, I decided to go even quicker than I myself had expected. The reason for it was that though the place itself was nice, it felt dishonest in a way to stay, as I really couldn't believe in what they (we!) were doing there. I don't feel that chanting Amituofo is a way forward for me, and if I was hoping that it would have been a place top just take more time for myself, I felt that to have stayed there, I really should have put my heart into the practise, which I can't do.

So, yesterday, out of the blue, I told the two Wangs that I am going, which they were not happy to hear. But we had a long talk and in the end, they sent me on my way with a thousand smiles and good wishes, and hoping for me to come back another time. And of course I have my little Amituofo radio ;)

From here, the adventure goes on, with no special destination right now. Just this huge country to explore and more time to explore myself, too :)

Tomorrow I might try to upload some pictures, of the smelly children as well as of the blue mountains far, far away...

WARNING!! This is going to be a long post... And I'll do it in two parts as it's about two different places and experiences, so here goes Part 1:

Before I go back in time, let me start by telling where I'm now. I'm sitting in a web cafe in a city called ShaoXing in Zhejiang Province (which is where i was headed anyway, not Jiangsu as I think I wrote before...). I definitely wasn't planning on coming here but that's what I want it all to be about now, not planning and just letting this country HAPPEN to me.

This place is lovely, though, it's a kind of an "unimportant" city (only 4,3 million people anyway!! Chinese scale again...), I'd certainly never heard of it before. But today, I arrived in Hangzhou (I'll get to how that happened in Part 2...) planning on staying there for a couple of days, but found out that all the hotels were really expensive and foreigners were not allowed to stay in the cheaper rooms. And it's not that great a place anyway, it really has a feel of a tourist city, and a hihg-class and expensive one at that. So, I jumped on the train and an hour later I was here in Shaoxing, which I find is a great place, it's clean, freen, pretty and peaceful (for a city of 4,3 million that's pretty good!!!), a nice combination of old and new. It's partly that China that we know from those films about old China, it's what they here call a 'water town', meaning that it's full of little canals, lined by beautiful old houses. And parks :) and even the new parts look nice, and not tacky like in the north... Me like it!!

But let's go back in time...

So, from Baoding I took a bus to go with Alan (Wang Zhi Yong) to his village in the Yi County of the Baoding area. On the bus we met a woman who turned out to be the head mistress of a kindergarten in Yi Xian. She asked us to go visit the kindergarten, just quickly, after which she'd give us a lift to the Dong Liu Quan village. Though Alan was a little reluctant, it was difficult to say no to a 20-minute visit and a ride that would get us to our destination probably a lot quicker than having to wait for the next bus.

And so we went. I was expencting a bunch of happy little kids (as i've seen before!!), laughing their 'hellos'
or 'ni hais'. But to my surpirese what I found were masses of sullen-looking children, no smiles, no laughter, no curiosity -- like someone had turned their spirits off! I still don't get whty there were like that, the place seemed ok, they had their classrooms and dorms and games and playground... Was it because their parents didn't have the time to be with them? Or the fact that they actually had to go to classes at 3 to 5 years old? I really don't know but it just felt weird and a little creepy.

And they were smelly. The classrooms smelled of them too, a kinda stuffy sour-milky something. Ugh. I tried to make contact with some of them, but most of them just didn't care. Soi different from the kids i've seen before!I did manage to get a couple of smiles, but that was all. I went into a couple of classes they were having and had to do English teaching shows, though they kids looked like they couldn't have cared less. But they got their pictures and video film (of course they called the cameramen to come wittness the occasion!). It wasn't that bad (maybe I'm axaggerating), but it definitely was weird. Anyway, the woman was really nice and we finally drove to the village together.

I spent one night in the village with Alan's family. This time his dad was home, too. And his little brother, for whom it was the first day to go to his new boarding school in Yi Xian, so we took him there in the afternoon. It was kinda sad, as he's only 12 and didn't really want to go, but there is no middle school in the village and he is good enough a student to get into this school which is the best in the county, and you have to live in the dorms... no going home at night even if you live close by. So we left him there, with his new glasses that we went to buy first and his bag of instant noodles. All the other boys in his dorm room (there are 12 in one room!) are a lot bigger and rougher, I think, he is like this little smart and sensitive kid, a really nice and sweet boy. But it's going to be a little tough for him to make it in the new place. Smart and sensitive kids aren't exactly the ones that get to be 'on top' in that kind of environments.

The next morning, he already called home, which made the mum cry, she really feels for him but what can you do. And while on the phone she was being very brave and happy, trying to encourage him. My heart really goes out for him...

It was funny that being in the village, most people didn't pay too much attention to me. In the towns and cities I'm so used to being the object of everyone's attention thyat it was a big change to be treated without any special curiosity. Not in the emply way of the kindergarten kinds, but just naturally, as just a *person* among others. Although I did have someone come and touch my hair...

Alan's mum is such a sweetie, she made her best dishes for me and would have had me stay for a lot longer. And she was making me swear to come back, for Spring Festival if possible. We'll see. In any case, it was nice being there, sitting outside in the courtyard at night, watching the fireflies and listening to the distant sounds from other homes, and otherwise enjoying the darkness and the silence.

In Baoding again. Feels weird. I arrived yesterday, and have spent last night and the whole of today meeting friends, eating and talking... I do like this city, it feels so nice and small and friendly after the big and busy Jinan. But I'm not tempted to stay long, i want to move on with my life and my journey, and in a way coming to Baoding feels like takig a step backwards. So, on saturday morning I'm off to the village in Yi county.

(I'm a little distracted by the guys on both sides of me in the netcafe, playing Counter Strike [as most people in Chinese internet cafes tend to do] and shrieking and laughing...)

Anyway, work is over for me now, and from here on the road is all open for me. it's a funny feeling, and i suppose i'll really only realise what it means after i leave Baoding.

And, I'm already apologising in advance, as bad as I usually am with emails, I'm afraid that i will get even worse from now on, as i will probably not have regular access to the internet.

Oh, and get this: When I went to Jinan I left two big bags of all my stuff here in Baoding, as they promised that they can keep them at the university for me. So, they were left in my old apartment. And yesterday when I asked for them, I found out that it's all gone. Apparently, Mr Kou, the newest member of staff in the int.nat. office was left in charge of the clening of the flats for the new teachers, so he got the cleaners in and told them that there might be some old clothes and stuff in the flats, but that they could take what they could use and throw the rest of the stuff out. And that 'stuff' included my bags, i.e. all my winter clothes, shoes, books, a lot of papers, presents that people gave me.... all gone!

It sucks, but then again it's just things, so it doesn't really annoy me all that much. I'll just have to do some shopping for the winter so i don't freeze to death... and anyway, it makes my life a lot easier as i don't have to try to figure out what to do with everything and where to leave it. So that was the end of my endless mountains of stuff...

Not very surprised anyway that they'd lose it... I should've known better.