My Matty Stix

Well the big day is finally here. Today is Matty stix's birthday. I can't believe my little boy is 22 already. I remember when he first came to China in October of 2005. He was sooo cute and him and I clicked almost instantly. We had fun celebrating his birthday last year and we did some celebrating yesterday and we'll be doing some more celerating later. I just wanted to take the time to say Happy Birthday Matty stix and I hope your birthday wish comes true. Also, I wish you many many more.
Much love
Litisha

Unexpected shin dig

Last week, Daisy (one of my Chinese friends and a co-teacher at the school) gave me an invite to her house. She recently got married and her and her new husband moved into a beautiful apartment in Wuchang. Anyway, Matty stix, Eileen and I headed out and went over to her place. We just kinda hung out for a bit, watched tv, chatted and then we headed out to a restaurant. We had a great dinner and lots of laughs. It wasn't our final goodbye or anything but it was probably the last time we'd be at dinner together. Anyway, we had a few drinks there and after we parted ways from Daisy, we headed back home and continued the party in my room. Even Klaver, Lisa and Colin came down and had a few drinks with us.
We wanted to have fun and in addition to that, we wanted to party a bit since the next day was Matty stix's birthday. Anyways, it started to get late and then Nathan popped in and said that there was a new bar that was offering free beer to foreigners. Well free beer was all that Klaver had to hear and he convinced Colin to go with him. Matty stix and Eileen were pretty drunk and they left. I was pretty drunk and it didn't take much to convince me to go to this new bar for this free beer.
Anyway, we hopped into a cab and found that the bar was actually pretty nice, it wasn't too far and the myth of the free beer was true. The only down side was that it is a very typical Chinese bar (which isn't my favourite) but it is very nicely decorated and the music isn't too too bad. I had many a Chinese guy compliment me and buy me even more beer. All and all, I'd say that was a good night. I came home and was still in the mood to party for some reason but eventually I had to call it a night and go to bed. That was at about 3am. Needless to say, when I woke up this morning I felt like hot sick ass. I got through the day just fine but that won't be an event I'll repeat in the near future. This week Friday, after pay day, I'll be making my regular trip to Vox and then I'll go back to this place on Saturday night. I want to still live moderate but at the same time, enjoy my last month here. This is probably the only time I'll be able to live this kind of life and I have to take full advantage of it. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to get back home, but I do plan on enjoying this as much as I can for as long as I can.
35 days and counting.

TTFN

Like it's 1999

Well there really isn't much to tell. Everyone is getting excited about going to their respective homes. We try not to talk about because we know we'll miss each other but at the same time, it's all we could talk about. Alot of us, stopped really caring about what we do because we know that we only have a short time left. We still do our jobs but the drive (if there ever was one) is certainly gone.
The weather is always an adventure. Some days blistering heat and sunshine other days, overcast and very muggy. Sometimes both in the same day. I'm trying to do more outside things since I know it would be a very long time before I come back here. I have adopted Wuhan as another home for me and I know I will miss it but nothing gives me greater pleasure than living in a country where things make sense and people are normal. Or atleast on a level of normal and abnormal that I can accept. It's very interesting watching this town develop. There have been so many developments and changes since I first came here in 2005 and they are still going. They've been working really hard and have been building a subway system in town. As I'm sure you know, most major cities do have subways and this will boost Wuhan up in the ranking a bit. Sometimes I think that I'm pretty lucky to be able to witness the begining development of this tiny town. I'm very curious to see what it'll look like in 5 years or even 10.
In other news, last night, we had ourselves a good old fashion party. We hadn't had a pot luck in a long time and we originally planned on doing one for Sarah's birthday but last week she said that she was going to Beijing on that day. Lisa was thinking not to have the pot luck but Alex and Matt, still wanted to do it. So the pot luck was on. We sat around the table, ate good food, drank and had a great time. We listened to music, danced and sang along. It was probably the best time we had together as a group in a long time. By 3am, we were all good and drunk. The boys started to get rowdy and I jokingly kicked them out of my room (which is the hub of the building - not that I'm trying to toot my own horn but it's true). Lisa went to bed and I stayed up for a bit. However, despite all the noise the boys were making outside, I hit the wall and went to bed.
Today is a big working day for me. I'm going to start packing some of the trinkets and momentos and some of my winter clothes in boxes, to prepare them for shipping at the end of June. I have to really think about... what I want to send in the boxes, pack with me, leave here to send later and throw away all together. Some tough decisions and sacfrifices will have to be made, but somebody's got to do it.
So that's the scoop

TTFN

Take a moment

Well things here in Wuhan have been pretty good. The weather has been tolerable. It's mostly been partly sunny, warm, breezy days. I've sort of settled into this life of just doing as I'm told and going through the motions at school. All of us have been anxious to get home. None more so that Lisa and Colin. Klaver and I have been getting our thoughts ready to come back home. We'll be taking the same flight and also on the way back we'll spend a day in Beijing. I'm really looking forward to it.
Now on a more serious note. Today we were all in shock to find out that a student at our school died. I don't know the precise details surrounding her death but from what I've been told, she collapsed yesterday at school, they took her to the hospital and she subsequently died. I don't know why or from what. The student was a girl in grade 5 and was actually a student of Moose's. I didn't get a chance to talk to him but according to Lisa he was pretty shook up. The thing that bothered me was, while all the chinese teachers huddled in the office discussing the matter, none of them said anything to any of us officially and the other thing was that this child's death wasn't even acknowledged by the school population. It was just another day at school and noone seemed to be bothered except for the people closely associated with this student. There was no announcement made by the principal or flag at half mast or anything. It was very strange. I remember when I was in high school, a fellow classmate died and the entire school was in mourning. Obviously the people closer to him were affected more but it was something that hit everyone. The day it happened, we went to class but no teachers were teaching and it took a good week before things were back to normal at school. Here at Wuchang Experimental, it was as if it never happened and this is what made me sad.
Anyway, Colin's birthday is on Sunday, so we'll be going out tonight to celebrate. I don't know what's going to happen but it should be fun.

44 days and counting till I get home.

TTFN

A dream dreamt and lived

Well I finally made it out to Thailand. I had been dying to go there for many many years. The entire trip had it's ups and downs and I won't bore you with the blow by blow details but here are some of the highlights. The weather could have been better. Unfortunately this was the only time I could get and it was also the begining of the rainy season. The important thing is that I made the trip. I did almost everything I wanted to do and despite going by myself, I had a marvalous time. My only wish is less rain and the ability to do more. Anyways, here it goes.


Here I am on an elephant (duh!). She's 50 years old and I got her all to myself. As you can see with the umbrellas, it was raining then too but there was something oddly calming about trenching around in the rainy jungle on the back of an elephant. This was fun and the guide at the front was really pleasant. In fact he gave me a cigarette and then the two of us were on the back of the elephant having a smoke. The Thai people are very nice and very pleasant. This day, despite the rain, was a good day.


Here is the baby elephant which was the absolute highlight of my day, probably the trip and maybe even my life. I love baby elephants so much. This little guy is named Phuket since he was the first elephant to be born in Phuket. He's 5 years old and he was so cute. For 40 Baht, you could feed him some fruit or vegetables and that was so much fun. I fed him from the basket, from my hand to his trunk and also I put a piece directly in his mouth. It was so cool. Also, he played the harmonica with his trunk and did a little dance. I was giddy all day and just talking about it now, there's a smile on my face. I love baby elephants!


This is around the Phi-Phi (pee-pee) island area. If you remember the movie The Beach, I went to Maya Bay where it was filmed but because of the high tide and the bad weather we were unable to spend any real time on the beach itself, but I did go snorkeling with the fish at Maya Bay and that was amazingly awesome. Anyway, if you ever get the chance to watch the movie again, towards the end when they are floating on that make-shift boat because they have to leave "the beach", you'll see these two little islands in the background. From a distance they kinda looked like two nipples and that was part of the reason why I took the picture.


This is me on my last night in Phuket Thailand and I'm having my last beer and my last pad thai (one of my favourite dishes of all time). Once again, the Thai people are so pleasant and nice. I really had a good time and I really tried to enjoy everything that the beautiful country had to offer. I don't when I'll be able to visit again but if I do, now I'm prepared and I could do even more on my next visit.

This was the morning I was leaving Phuket. Needless to say, I cursed the gods for giving me this day and ironically not giving me the time to enjoy it. I am Fortune's fool. Anyway, I was happy that I was able to atleast witness a sunny day in Thailand, but it did suck that I wasn't able to enjoy it. This pic was taken after I had my breakfast and was getting ready to get my car to the airport. But like I said, I was able to atleast see it, not be on it. Big mistake, but there was still a positive side.

In other news, I'd like to take the time to say Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there and a very special Happy Mother's Day to my mom. For without her, I wouldn't even be here. Thanks for everything mom. Enjoy your day.

TTFN