Back to full speed...I think

More than 1 post in 1 week...what's going on!

Since my last post, my so called cold has deteriorated into a flu/virus/stomach bug. So the last weekend felt like a pretty crappy one (at least since i got to China). I basically slept all Friday night, Saturday, Sunday and today.

Friday was the last day for many students in the school, and most of the good friends I had made were leaving Beijing on the Saturday morning. So the timing of the sickness sucked because I couldn't hang out with the guys for one last night. Rafael, Judy and Mandi went out to various bars, nightspots on their last night, but I had to farewell them in my PJ's from my apartment. I managed to squeeze in a quick drink with Edmund & Rick before they went to Shanghai and that was only because it was at John's apartment (2 floors above mine).

Saturday I visited Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) with Ashley (fellow Sydneysider) and Maggie (local from Suzhou). When talking with Maggie I realise how much my CHinese sucks...hahaha. But it makes me want to improve so much more. The weather was cold, but the wind chill....ahhhhhhh...it got me again. It was blasting away at us, and taking photos was painful (because it required removing our gloves, thus causing frozen hands). Nevertheless, Tiantan was remarkable and probably the best sight I've seen in Beijing (Great Wall not counted). Afterwards, I felt like crap and by the time I got home I collapsed into bed and slept for like 15 hours straight.

So I missed out visiting BICF (Beijing Inter Church Fellowship) again, but my symptoms were slightly improved. I guess on a diet of plain bread and bananas (on doctors orders) you can't go wrong. I still had a major case of the 'jolly johns' so by today I decided it was time to hit the international clinic. After getting the medication I decided to sit out school today so I can go back with good health tomorrow.

But despite this short illness, I think it's been a good thing for me. With all the time I've nearly finished off the 1st book I planned to read whilst I was here ('Courageous Leadership' by Bill Hybels). I've also had alot of time just to think and for some reason my mind kept shifting to the Annual Youth Conference to be held in Sydney at the end of 2006. Yes, alot of anxious thoughts but also alot of excitement.

Random Observations

Women here spit too! Might sound like a dumb and obvious thing, but I thought women wouldn't do it so openly. I'm walking behind two student looking young women and they accumulate their spit with the oh so familiar 'CROOOOOOOOOOOIIK' and hurl it sideways...dayum! Then like 2 minutes later I'm about to get into a lift when a lady just hurls a big ass spit ball like 2 feet away from me. Then there are also guys who are experts at hurling big ass snotballs through one nose more than one metre distance. As impressive as it is disgusting!

They should add these new sports just for the Beijing olympics!

Man, I'm fully craving for a meat pie! Or a big steak! Or a BBQ chicken! But most of all some of mum's home cooked food (like Chinese food minus MSG, excess salt, etc).

Oh yeah, watch out for Mongolian girls if you ever come to China. It helps if you're not bai ren (white person) but it doesn't make you immune.

Ciao!