Criminal Minds is the Bee's Knees

I am back from my hiatus. I know I know, you are all so relieved. It's been about a month and a half since I last updated you on my life here in Guilin, China so hopefully I can do some updating in a time efficient manner. First off, my cast. I got my cast taken off last Thursday and was told that I should still use my crutches but I could put some weight on the hell of my foot. I am currently using just one crutch because I think I look cooler. Actually, it's just much easier than two and it's easier to carry when I'm driving my moped. You didn't think a broken foot would stop me from driving my moped did you? Well it did for a little while, and then I just got tired of it so I decided to drive it. Once I got back to the hospital for the fourth (and hopefully last) time, it will have been 8 weeks. Eight long weeks. I hate when you are looking for time to fly by fast so something will happen because then I feel like I miss so much. Oh well. I am almost healed now, so I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Since my last post we have celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving. Halloween was an interesting, but fun time. A bunch of the foreigners in Guilin met downtown all dressed up in our costumes. There were many people around taking pictures. I'm not sure how many pictures I posed for that night, but I think it probably exceeded 100. "Picture?" they would say as they walked up with a camera. "Well why the hell not," I wanted to say, but usually just said, "Sure." I don't mind taking pictures with/for random Chinese people, but after a little while it gets a little old. But hey, I chose to come here right? The picture to the right is of my costume. I was dressed as a bum, because I kind of already looked like one. I wore a sign around my neck that said, "Will dance for beer," written in Chinese and English. I had a few takers, but mostly people just laughed. If only they knew I was completely serious. Can't win them all. We walked around downtown for a bit and then made our way to a few bars. A couple people took my crutches away thinking that my costume was, well, just a costume. Seriously. This is real life. I need those crutches. They are my legs. After some convincing that my foot was in fact broken, and those crutches are indeed a necessity, I got my crutches back. At a different bar someone decided to kick my cast thinking it was a fraud. Overall, bad costume choice, but it was a good time nonetheless and made for some good stories. Thanksgiving was spent at a nice buffet inside a hotel called the Shangri La. It is a super nice hotel and the food is delicious. They actually had turkey and mashed potatoes. Of course it didn't even come close to what I have been spoiled with on my previous Thanksgiving meals, but it just gave me another opportunity to be thankful for something. Like cheesy potatoes. Damn. I miss those. Anyway, Thanksgiving was a fun time and a good meal. There were about 16 of us at the dinner, mostly made up of Americans. Maybe we will all go back for Christmas dinner.

Now I want to share a good/scary story from earlier today. I went to lunch with Kaitlin to get some noodles (thought we would mix it up a bit). Actually, we have noodles and rice a lot. It's easy and convenient. I can say what I want and they understand me so I eat noodles a lot. Anyway, we enjoyed our meal and headed to my moped to come back home. As we were about to leave, we saw a man jump out of his car and start going through his trunk frantically looking for something. Then, he slammed his trunk shut and ran into a restaurant right next to the one we were just at. All of a sudden he reappears back outside with a meat cleaver in his hand. Fantastic. Two other guys then come out of nowhere, one with a rock in his hand and the other half trying to hold him back .The man with the cleaver got in the face of the man with the rock in his hand (clearly at a serious disadvantage) and they were having a few choice words with each other. This is what I believe was said..."Hey man, would you like me to chop up that rock for you?" "No thanks. I think I might just try and throw it on the ground and break it in to a few pieces." "Ok that's fine. Suit yourself." "Well, you sir, have a nice day." "You do the same"...Actually I think I might have gotten it wrong. They did seem a bit more mad at each other than that. They chased each other around for a bit and then finally stopped. The two men went back to their moped and drove off. The guy finally gave back the meat cleaver and went back to his car. He drove off as well. There was obviously something that happened before these men stopped at the red light out in front of the restaurant. Good times, good times.

I am still enjoying the food for the most part. I eat a lot of noodles and rice. I also like to eat dumplings every now and again. Whenever you ask for meat in your dish, you usually get about 3 or 4 small pieces. That is probably why everyone is so skinny over here. We also like to go to hot pot restaurants. This is where they put a big bowl/bucket of water in the middle of the table and boil it. Then they bring out all sorts of different vegetables and meats that you cook in the water and then eat. These dinners usually last a lot longer, but it is very good food and always a fun time. A lot of times for dinner we will go to any one of the many BBQ places around. You can pick out vegetables or meat on a skewer and they will cook it for you. A couple of weeks ago I went to one of these by myself. I was sitting down about to eat when these 3 Chinese guys invited me to come sit with them. I of course said yes, and before I knew it I was drinking Chinese liquor with them having a great time. I was trying out the little Chinese I've learned so far and they were speaking some English with me. Communicating with them was hard, but we had a great time. I find that by saying 'yes' more, I have a lot more interesting/exciting experiences.

My inability to walk over the last 6 weeks has given me a chance to watch a lot of a show called Criminal Minds. It is a crime show that I find very entertaining. I have made it through almost four seasons already. There is a website called tudou.com that has so many different television shows and movies on it. The only problem is that the website is all in Chinese so it is quite hard to navigate. Anyway, that has been a nice substitute for me when going up and down 56 steps didn't sound like too much fun.

I hope this post finds all of you well. Life is still good. The weather has been quite nice lately, which has been a good change from what I'm used to at this time of year. I miss you all very much.

-Kevin

P.S. Sorry I don't have many pictures for you this time. Hopefully next time I will have much more. The picture below is of a bunch of us at a Korean guy's birthday party. Enjoy.