"Traded the Van For It Straight Up"

I've been in Guilin now for over a couple weeks and I'm really starting to settle in. I really enjoy hearing from everyone back home so don't ever hesitate to write me. Here goes my update for the last couple of weeks...

I suppose I'll start with the title of this post. The quote comes from arguably the greatest movie of all-time, "Dumb and Dumber." This quote comes after Lloyd trades their van for a mo-ped and then goes to pick up Harry who is elated with Lloyd, telling Lloyd that he "totally redeemed himself." Now I could probably put up a "Dumb and Dumber" quote every week just because I really like the movie, but this quote has a little significance to my post (I promise). Ever since I got to Guilin, I saw people riding around on bikes and mo-peds. At first I really thought I wanted a bike, but after some thought the mo-ped seemed to be the way to go. So I went out a couple of days later and bought one from a mo-ped shop. The picture to the left is me with my mo-ped and the very friendly man who sold it to me. Neither of us understood a word the other was saying the entire time, but somehow the transaction got completed. I rode away into the heavy traffic terrified of getting back to my place. Kaitlin had also gone with me, so I was also in charge of her life as we rode away. I guess you could say I was a bit nervous at the time, but oh well. It is an electric one so I just charge it up every night. It's been a ton of fun to ride around on and it is a very convenient way to get around the city. I am starting to figure out the traffic, although some things still don't make sense, but it is what it is.

Last week I met with my boss and my waiban (the person I go to if I need help with anything), Crystal. I also met with the rest of the foreign teachers who will be teaching this year. For some, it is their first year and others have been here longer. It was nice to meet them all and find out where they were all from. My boss, Mr. Lan Wei, had a meeting with the entire group and basically just laid out his expectations and guidelines for us. He also informed us of when we would start teaching. I will start teaching at the end of this month or at the very beginning of October. I was happy to hear this because that will give me some more time to figure out the city and also to start to learn some Chinese. Today was the first class and it was at 8:40. I fully intended to go, but when my alarm went off in the morning I knew I still needed a few more hours of sleep, so I of course did not go. No worries though because I was informed that today was super basic and I didn't miss anything. I have a good reason for me sleeping in, which I will explain in a bit. Anyway, after the meeting with everyone we had dinner which was very good. I've met a lot of kewl and interesting people here so far, which I'm very happy about.

This next part I didn't really want to write about because I don't want to relive it, but I guess I will anyway. Yesterday we all had to go and get our medical check-ups. Now I had heard stories about how much it sucked and also how they had to draw blood. Now of course, if you know me, you know I hate needles and I hate getting my blood drawn. I really don't even like getting shots. Even the thought of doing either makes me uneasy and sweaty. Hell, right now I'm even sweating. Anyway, we had to get meet up at 8:30 in the morning to head to the hospital to do the check-up. I, naturally, only slept for about 2.5 hours that night because I couldn't stop thinking about it. I tried to do things to take my mind off it, like watch the Drake soccer game against Oakland on GameTracker (which is loads of fun). It didn't help that we lost (we or they, I don't know anymore). Then after that got over around 2:30 a.m. my time, I spent another couple of hours trying to get Facebook and YouTube to work. I finally got it to work, but please don't tell the Chinese government. I want to stay here a bit longer. Ok, back to the real story. So we get to the hospital, fill out some paperwork, and then sit around for about 1.5 hours. They then tell us to go around the the different stations to do our tests. I first did an x-ray. Then I did my height, weight, blood pressure, and so on. After that I went to get my blood drawn. I didn't look the entire time, and then I realized I was done and stood up. I could tell that it was starting to get to me so I went where I knew there was a fan blowing out very cold air. I went to stand in front of it, and of course, it turned off after about 2 seconds. Fantastic. I then found my way to the lobby very quickly where I laid down on a hard bench while sweat dripped off my face. I was fine after about 5 minutes, but everyone there just kind of looked at me. I'm convinced that if I would've passed out, no one would have come rushing my way. I then had to go to this electric test and also get an ultrasound on my stomach and sides. They didn't find any babies, but they also didn't really find anything. Apparently the lady couldn't find my intestines or something (I wish I spoke Chinese), so now I have to go to another hospital at some point to do another ultrasound. I now get to sit here for a couple of days hoping nothing is wrong with me. Oh well, things could be worse.

I'll try and end this post on a bit of a lighter note. I met a guy today named Fritz, from Indonesia. He's a super nice guy and he took me, Kaitlin, and Adela (another foreign teacher) out to lunch. He then asked me if I played basketball or soccer (football here), and I told him I liked to play both. He then went on to tell me that he plays with a bunch of guys and wanted to know if I wanted to play soccer with them tomorrow. I said yes, so tomorrow I finally get to strap the boots on and touch a ball again. I'm pretty pumped up about this because I haven't touched a soccer ball in a long time. It's hard being away from a sport I love so much for so long. Tomorrow night will be glorious. I think you might be able to follow the match at www.fritzandkevinplaysoccer.com (Mom, that was just a joke so please don't actually try and go to that website).

Well that's enough for now. I hope I don't bore you all too much. Again, I hope this post finds you all well. Life is good in Guilin. Also, I was finally able to load the video of my apartment, so if you want to check it out, it's at the bottom. Love you all!

Kevin