As if to try and blow away the heavy layer of dust I have on my mind, the wind is blowing in Shiyan today. In fact, in the nearly 3 months I have been here in Shiyan, this is the first time there has been wind at all.
The reward for this bone-chilling wind is, of course, clean air. It does seem, however, as if our friendly neighbourhood coal-based power plant has stepped up production. The smoke stack is pumping even thicker, browner smoke today. But still, the wind is taking it up and away over the mountains, so no harm to us Shiyanians today. Pity those cute forest creatures.
Also, for the first time in a while, my nose is not blocked, running or both and I can breathe the clean fresh air with glee.
Along with all the air pollution, the dust on my mind has also been blown away (or maybe just temporarily kicked up). I visited Lara at The Restaurant this afternoon and we managed a slight variation on our normal, limited conversation. My problem is that often I can’t articulate, whilst her problem is that (sometimes) she doesn’t want to articulate.
When you don’t really understand each other that much, it’s always very convenient to say ‘I don’t understand’ when you actually just don’t want to answer. I use that excuse quite often myself. But anyway, so now we have an understanding and I will just wait and see. At least I have put my mind to ease.
Oh, btw – in this school, Christmas has been canceled.
I planned the whole toot. Christmas trees, decorations, Santa Claus outfit… but this week in particular, the kids have demonstrated that they will go into a frenzy and rip apart anything remotely foreign. On Monday, already in my first class, my reindeer antlers got snapped. Sure, they were flimsy, 4 quai pieces of rubbish, what did I expect, but they had sentimental value. Oh ok, not really, but I have to dramatize to illustrate the gravity of the situation.
Yesterday the little piranhas nearly tore apart King’s Christmas hat and last night in class, two little sh… piranhas nearly did the same to me. So I dare not bring any more props to school, fearing to never see it whole or working or at all again (and I was going to borrow the Santa suit – I’d have lost my security deposit for sure). Tonight, it’s back to the good old English curriculum. Merry Chrizzzzzzz.
That said, that’s it. I’m posting a picture in addition to a post of 2 weeks back. I got some pictures emailed to me. In most of them I look like the mongrel I am, but in this one I just look a bit freaky. And freaky is better than mongrel (in my book).
Sorry, picture got lost when my blog went down and I had to repost from Google cache leftovers.