Last day at Sam's... Well, let's not speak too soon

Well, at least I think it is. I won't know for sure until Fiona is here and I actually check out. As I am finding with this trip, nothing is to be expected and if I am told one thing, chances are it will turn into something else. Lucky for me I recently learnt how to go completely with the flow; I have given up the need to be in control of my destiny.

I have been thinking about bringing my bags here to the reception, but why tempt fate. If I bring my bags, Fiona is sure to contact me and say she can't make it until tomorrow, so I'll leave them where they are until she arrives.

Last night I went to see the Sichuan Opera and enjoyed it very much. There were many different acts and I don't know if I could pick my favourite. There was the actual opera, which I could take or leave, then there was a man who played a kind of violin with two strings. His first piece was a classical piece which was very beautiful, then he had some fun with his second piece. After the Gaohu Solo (violin) came some stick puppets, who had the audience laughing with their antics. The operator was very clever. Next came 'Rythem of Shu Yun' which is a particular art form consisting of folk instuments. Then a trumpet player came on making birdcalls and then humorously taking off the dialogue between two people. It was quite funny. Next was a fantastic Hand Shadow Show, this was fantastic! Ok, so this was probably my favourite of them all. The last act for the evening was 'Changing Faces and spitting Fire', with changing faces, the performers change their masks in a magic way to show the rapid changes of a persons innermost being.

This morning I finally went to the temple I have been wanting to go to for a couple of days. The temple was not the place of serenity I was expecting with the hords of people that were there, but it was still an interesting look. Then once I had my fill of the non peace and serentiy, I made my way to Jin Li Street, which is an old area of town with many food stalls and gift shops. I enjoyed this very much.

I am still getting use to the fact that everyone stares at me.

People will walk up to me and say "hello", or just stare. Some will nod and smile, while others will whack the person they are with to get their attention to show them the 'white person'. It's all very amusing. Little children will wave from the back of mopeds, or stare as they are walking down the street then lose their course and nearly walk into something. I never expected to go unnoticed, but I was not expecting this. I had someone want me to be in a photo with them today, who know's what stories will be told about that one.

I just spoke to Fiona who is on the bus on the way here, I'm not quite sure how we are getting to the school, but I'm sure I'll find out.

This sure has been a lot of fun and games. I'm ready to get serious now though, start doing what it is I came here to do.

Well, I might go and get my bags.

Take it easy folks.

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Well, like I said, "Nothing is to be expected, if I am told one thing, chances are it will turn into something else." Well, my trip to finally see my appartment today, turned into something else. I am now spending one more night at Sam's Guesthouse, but still in the dodgy hotel down the road, Sam's Guesthouse is actually a very nice hotel with a lusious garden and tea house. I am in a dive of a hotel with long unlit corridors and a - well you've seen photos of the bathroom.

Anyway, just as I was about to leave here to go and get my bags, Fiona walked in and said she still cannot contact the teacher at the school who has the key to my apartment. Fiona did arrange for the other foreign teacher from my school to meet us here and he had agreed to let me stay in his apartment tonight. That was very kind of him, but Fiona gave me the choice of staying here or gate-crashing someone's place, I thought rather than repack again and again, I would stay here and wait for Fiona tomorrow. Who can believe this? I'm beginning to expect these sorts of things to happen.

How sad is that?

The other foreign teacher is Matt from Washington DC, he has been here for the full month already and loves his job. This is his first teaching post as well. I learnt my appartment is two bedroom , yippee!  and that I can have visitors, even bigger YIPPEE!! So anyone coming to visit can come and stay with me. That is very good news. I didn't know what to expect, but Matt said the apartment was much better than he was expecting and the furnishings are really nice. Oh, that is good news. Matt is on the second floor and I will be on the third floor.

Fiona has gone again, she just got back from visiting her family and came straight to see me. Then she wanted to run off and see her boyfriend. Now I have to find something to do for the evening. I don't know what I am in the mood for. I wonder if I will run into the three French people I met last night at the Opera, they were doing some tour or other today and they might be free for dinner. I can't just go and do something by myself because nobody speaks English, I am going to have to take lessons in Chinese very soon.

I'm hungry, I ate my orange this morning and had a mango juice at the old part of town, but now I want something to eat. I might try to find one of the street vendors and see what they have for sale.

So here we go again. Still not at my final destination. Will I ever get there? I sure hope so. This is getting silly.

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I am sitting here in Renmin Park, the People’s Park, I have my tea - the very best Jasmine Tea, and I have just had a massage. The tea cost me RMB20 and the massage RMB50.

I was feeling pretty low after Fiona left, I was feeling as at loss of what to do with myself. I felt like something to eat, I saw many things this morning I thought I might like of r lunch, but when I asked Sophia bout them, she said they were for breakfast.

This tea is delicious. I can smell the jasmine. It makes me think of Caroline and Sam. Not  only is their lovely daughter named Jasmine, but at their last house they had a beautiful Jasmine plant growing in their front drive, and each time you walked d to their front door you got a waft of the stunning perfume.

There are so many people in this park, yet it doesn’t feel crowded. The lake is teaming with little paddle boats full of families.

I had my massage but I keep being asked by others if I want one, that or my ears cleaned. I’ll save the ear cleaning for another day.

I am waiting to see someone fall in the lake. There are a few people mucking around and I fully expect someone to topple into the water.

I tried to make a coffee earlier.

It’s been days since I had one and I need a fix. Yesterday I bought a jar of instant coffee, made from Brazilian Coffee beans, then this morning I bought what I thought was milk and wnet back to my room to try the hot water out of my filter. No hot water. So I thought I’d have a cold milky coffee, not exactly what I wanted but, hey, when you’re desperate - well I opened the milk and had a sniff of it, well it looked like milk, had a similar texture to milk, but it was not milk. Ok, no coffer for you! So here I am drinking tea, which is fine, but I really want coffee.

I have found it very noisy here. I don’t even get any silence at night. Some of the stalls in the street outside my window stay open till very late and the noise on the street in the morning is already humming when I wake up. I have to sleep with the door to the balcony open because of the heat and the stale cigarette smell in my room.

I miss the ocean. The water was so clear and the most luminescent colour the other day when Renee and I went for a swim. It feels like another lifetime ago when I had that swim.

I think I will start work on the 8^th. I don’t know thought. This is pretty frustrating. This whole process has been a shambles. Imagine if all business was conducted this way. Nothing would ever get done.

Just looking around at all the different teas on the tables, there are so many different ones. The man at the table in front of me has a tall glass full of green leaves. The people next to me have a tall glass filled with what look like little daisies.

My tea includes a cup with the actual tea in it, a saucer and a lid, and a huge flask full of boiling hot water for me to top up whenever I desire. This really is the life. I could sit here all afternoon if I choose, and I might just do that. I have nowhere I need to be.

Matt was telling me there is a cafeteria at the school where he gets his lunch, he said the food took a little getting use to , but he likes it now.

I didn’t end up getting anything for lunch because all I could find in the market were pigs snouts and chicken feet, neither of which I was particularly in the mood for today. So on my way here to the park I past a shop selling ice-creams and I bought myself an Ecuador magnum, vanilla ice-cream with rich dark chocolate. Sorry Irene, there was no free upgrade to Gold Class. I’m either going to lose a lot of weight by not eating anything or put a lot on from all the ice-cream I eat, I’ve had ice-cream for lunch two days in a row now. I went into a little supermarket and was surprised by the amount of crappy processed food there was for sale. Thank goodness for all the delicious fresh fruit everywhere, that’s all I can say.

The people in the boats are having so much fun. A mother and daughter just came by, sailing very close to the wall, mum paddling like mad to prevent a collision, both with huge smiles on their faces.

Boys will be boys no matter where you go. Another boat just cruised by with two boys on the front seat paddling and a girl and another boy on the back seat as passengers. The boy in the back seat stood up to rock the boat, and the girl told him off.

It’s pretty hazy today. I don’t know  if it’s smog or not. There were more cars on the road today, but most people are still on holidays, so I can only imagine how busy it will be when they all go back to work.

Oh, here we go, more girly squeals, and there’s another guy standing up rocking the boat. Boy, what is it with you lot?

It has turned quite chilly. I might head back and decide what I want to do for dinner. I could quite easily go back and have some more double cooked pork with potato. That meal the other night was delicious.

Oh, I haven’t told you about my meal at the Thai restaurant last night. Has anyone ever tried to pick mango slices up with chopsticks? Well it’s a lot of fun, let me tell you.

I ended up stabbing the mango with one chopstick and squeezing with the other, even so, sometimes the mango just slid off. The mango was part of the mango and prawn salad I had for an appetiser. Then my main was mince chicken, which you wrap in lettuce leaves. I can’t remember what it’s called. I didn’t try the free beer, but I was given a juice instead, I tried a papaya juice. Then when my meal was nearly finished, a waitress put a plate with a ‘hello kitty’ mould of mango pudding on my table. I wasn’t expecting that so I asked the waitress what it was. She didn’t speak English so ran off to get the hostess who told me it is a special for their foreign guests. I tried to leave a tip but they would not allow me to, and then gave me a couple of discount vouchers to take with me for next time. So there you go folks, if you come to Chengdu and want Thai as opposed to the delicious Sichuan food available here, I highly recommend the Asia Elephant around the corner from Sam’s Guesthouse.