Thanksgiving In China

So, I got thanksgiving off. Well, not OFF off. I didn't work today but i have to make up the classes another time. Still, it means I get some kind of beastly 4 day weekend, so that's cool. I got to sleep in until 9 (3 hours earlier than i would have woken up had it been a working thursday), and get online just in time to catch up with some of the "doesn't stay up until 3 am and is not in the republic of Georgia" crowd. When my Chinese language tutor failed to arrive at 2, i went to starbucks and read some Don Quixote. I'm to page 103 out of seven hundred something (7xx?). When i finally did have my language lesson, it was divided into two halves:

A) learning new words based around the theme of a restaurant
and
B) arguing about whether or not my kung fu was strong enough to get out of the hypothetical restaurant without paying, despite the presence of a security guard who knew "ghost style" kung fu and hundreds of old chinese people.

My argument? A triple threat of Tiger style, Godzilla (pronounced ge-si-le in chinese) style, and an intimate knowledge of the shaolin secret scrolls, which i acquired from my doctor, who stole them when the abbot had a stroke i guess. Also I said I hung out with the Monkey King in college, so he'd back me up.

After the class me and grant and zhu ting all went to a chinese restaurant that had good food but wasn't too expensive because of the cafeteria style ambiance. They didn't have turkey, so I got a chicken dish and we got some potatoes. I did, however, eat too damn much and Grant and I argued about stuff so it was a pretty close approximation to what Thanksgiving ought to be. I'll miss out on Turkey Enchiladas and dad's birthday but i'm full and I plan to spend the rest of my evening watching TV (I didn't think to torrent a football game, so Star Trek will have to do. Christ, what a nerd), bemoaning the amount of food i ate, and sleeping.

I've found that, here in Xi'an, I want for nothing but respectable company. Still, I get by.

The past week has been pretty bizzare. My university's president died, and his family lives in an apartment building 3 down from mine, so every time i leave i get to walk by tons and tons of flowers. I'll have to get a picture tommorow. I don't think I'll ever be so popular as to acquire such a display for anything I do.

Also, some of my students and I are going to "places of interest" in xi'an on saterday. That should be a good time I think. These are the students that got me coffee before my previous speech, so their company is welcome. Speaking of speeches, I have one tommorow at 2, where i'll be talkking about my experience working at the hospital for an hour and 20 minutes, and then taking questions. This time i'm talking to medical students rather than english majors, so that means I'll be putting up with harder or easier questions.

Finally, because of the situation in Georgia, Ava told me "I cannot go." So, I pump her for info, and she tells me "I can go, but I can't come back". This seems curious to me, as i doubt Georgia is just stockpiling planes. Then she tells me the REASON I can't go back is because A) Georgia has "troubles" and B) There is a cutoff date. So, really, i CAN go to Georgia, just not for as long as i'd like. I asked her to find out when the latest I can get back is, so hopefully she'll have something for me tommorow.

This is obviously frustrating, but i'm hoping it'll only shave a week or two off my trip there. The rate i was getting to travel was really good, but it turns to ash in my mouth if i can only go for 1 week. The other option is to pursue another airline, but early indications suggest that will raise the price by, well, a lot. Right now, it's in the wind. This is annoying, because I need to buy these tickets in the next week or two or else the price is going to skyrocket. or something. I just want this figured out. The logistics of getting airline tickets in China is a fucking nightmare, because everybody takes trains. Once i have tickets in my grubby little hands, it'll remove the albatross from around my neck. More winter break updates as this business unfolds.

As for piano, I'm trying to come up with my own chord progression. This requires learning some music thearoy, but 8notes.com has some good tutorials. So, I might be able to (poorly) record a chord progression with some simple fingering from the right hand, put it up, and give it to you (the internet) to put other instruments over. This would be easier with a drum line already set up but hey you do what you can with the hand you're given.

As for what i've been writing, I've breached the bulkhead of writing block. I'm still gonna try and do the "series of shot stories surrounding one lead character" idea, but I have a cohesive idea that'll bind them together. Netiquette requires that i warn you of a spoiler, even though this little adventure may not even get past MS word. Long story short is, the main character is trying to get on a train from beijing to xi'an, and can't get a ticket, so he gets a job working for the mercinaries defending the train from bandits. Since he doesn't travel around armed to the teeth, he gets the gear of the merc who he's replaceing, which explains the hole in the uniform and the feint red stain around it. Thing is, the merc he's replacing is a rogue member of an elite british squad, all super soldier and hush hush. She was number 6 of 10 (hence the VI on the helmet), and very few people know about the squad's existance. There's 2 problems. 1) The identity of each member was closely guarded, so she'll be recognized mostly by uniform alone and 2) the brits don't want a rogue member working for the highest bidder, and has been telling people that someone in this uniform might try and, say, assassinate the emperor of china. So, for reasons that our hero won't know about, he's going to attract a lot of attention from the types of people who get briefed on super secret stuff like this. Of course, the ACTUAL elite soldier is dead, and our hero is just some guy who figured if the only way to go to xi'an was to stay awake guarding the train at night, that was the way he'd go. Antics ensue. And the humor is, by the time he finds out it was the helmet and uniform that tipped people off, he'll have barely survived enough encounters that they'll know what they're looking for. It's a kind of "transcend the mask" thing, He's got to find out why the person went rogue in the first place, and the only way to get out of it is to finish her work. Ordinary person in an extrodinary situation. The average joe who never wanted to be a hero. I'm not sure what EXACTLY this tremendous good thing he must complete will be, but it'll probably involve the breakup of a secret society, cuz secret societies make really good enemies.

So, that's the story. Nice thing about it is, with individual vinettes or a periodical style I can keep this going forever if i have to. Remember how the episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle would end? Those were always rad. I think I might borrow that. I think I might start posting them here, so I can include that. Here, I'll do the first one right now.

Will Dan make good on this promise, and start regularly putting up short stories? Or will he do it once or twice and then forget about it when some other project catches his fancy? AND IF HE DOES, Will they just become derivative over time? Will he be find the C4 and disarm it in time? And just who is the mysterious Mr. X? Be sure to join us next week for: "Coffee Achievements" or "Focus? He don't even Know us!"