14/9/03

It's Sunday afternoon, and it's been pouring with rain all day. I had been hoping to get down to the store to pick up a few things but it hasn't let up since I woke up this morning, quite a shower. I've spent the last hour or so cleaning the place up and taking a few happy snaps so can all see where I'm living.

Friday night, I had planned to make it an early night, however when I went downstairs to pay Ian back for the night before, he suggested we head back downtown. There was an English Corner (where people who want to practice English show up to talk with foreigners, provided foreigners show up) happening at the bar we were at last night. It started at 8 and it was 11 when I got downstairs, but we figured at worst is would be a few free drinks. So we grabbed a cab and hit the town. It was actually pretty quiet by the time we got there. Jean (nightclub owner), Tibi (short for Tiberius, Romanian guy, been in China a while teaching and managing, married with a little girl, funny guy), Ian (Aussie from Adelaide, have heard that he's a bit of a walking tool, will wait and see, seems alright), and his girlfriend.

We sat around for about half and hour and then decided to head over to Kiss, the other bar we had been at the previous night. Was a pretty good night. At one point the four white boys (Tibi, Sam, Ian, Ian) ended up on stage entertaining the crowd, I would have called it 'making a fool of ourselves' but that might imply I have self respect. We were there till about 2, having a few drinks (one which was a fruit flavoured beer, which I think is a criminal offence in Australia, with good reason), and then headed back to the University and to bed.

Saturday morning slept in till 10, missing 4 calls from the folks before I eventually realized the phone was actually ringing, and it wasn't the fire alarm at the fire station I was working at on Mars, where I was a superhero. Everyone back home was doing well. Dad is on business up this side of the world next week and is going to be in Guangzhou (capital of Guangdong, 45 min flight from Shantou), so is going to stop in for a couple of nights. Were just trying to sort out if there's anything I need. I'm a little tentative about having an awful lot of stuff brought up, as these contract negotiations are not going well. Anyway, after a trip to the toilet over at Medical building, I met up with Ian and Adam and hit up the teachers restaurant for lunch. Was good food yet again. They do these small prawns and fry them until they're almost crunchy, and then you eat them whole, really good, if you're into that kind of thing.

Spent the rest of the afternoon with contractors hacking away at the toilet. Surprise, surprise they would have to come back this morning to sort it out... but this morning it was sorted out! And I have a toilet! Very happy. All I'm after now is job security... that might be too much to ask.

Essendon was playing Port Adelaide in the footy finals back in AUS, so I sat by the phone from about 5.30 till 7.30 getting updates from home, unfortunetly the result was not the desired one. After crying for a few hours, I made my way down to the guest house for a bit of western chow, and to have another crack at checking email. The club sandwich went down extremely well, and after 20 minutes I got access to Hotmail and Yahoo mail!!! For a total of three minutes... was a very exciting three minutes though. Got through a few messages at least. That same guy is still at me to buy his penis enlargement medication.

I stopped in at Chris' apartment on the way back up to the sixth floor, he was having a house warming, and had a bunch of people over. It was a pretty good gathering. We all have identical apartments, however Chris' actually looks like someone lives there, he has spent the last couple of days moving all his stuff from Beijing in, very nice. There was an invitation to head out to play pool later on, but after two nights out I figured it really was time for a quiet one, so I went back to my place. Having just gotten her phone number gave Ms. Sidoryk in Toronto a call, the line was fantastic, after 20 minutes deciphering the vibrations slightly resembling a human voice that had been trasmitted across the Pacific, we decided to give up, I think she may have even known who it was! Spent a couple of hours figuring out lesson plans, and watching DVD's before crashing. Money had told me the toilet gang would be back at ten so I wasn't looking forward to much of a sleep in.

They showed up at 12, with me up at 9.30. But the toilet is fixed so that is a relief, I'm now ready for the worst food poisoning imaginable. Thanks to the rain it's been a fairly quiet day. I spoke to Les yesterday, so far the Dean of the Medical school is unwilling to remove the clause we don't like, so things aren't looking all that good. Could be some decision making to done in the next couple of days. I'm not expert on contract law, but I just may be by the time this is all done.

- Sam