On My Side of the Ocean

Jackson finally made it to China late Wednesday evening, moved into his apartment, set up his internet, and bought a cell phone all in time to come down to visit me on Thursday after work. I can say that I have never been as happy as the moment when Janet, my boss, came into the staff room and said that there was an unknown white person standing in the entrance and I was able to say that he was my unknown white person! After an exceptionally humorous attempt at biking home with a passenger (several Chinese people had a fun story to go tell their families about) we opted for the safer route with Jackson walking as I cycled slowly home.

Friday was spent showing Jackson the shops I knew, basically a very limited activity. This was interrupted by my first ever loss of complete bodily control in the middle of a supermarket. Obviously I am still not in need of laxatives, so please refrain from sending them.

Saturday and Sunday were busy as usual with two sets of two-hour classes each, but they were punctuated by lunch with Jackson, my first real chance to use a menu here which made my food options exponentially increase!

I thought I would have Monday off, but my schedule changed once again, so I only had the morning to explore with Jackson before going with him to the train station (wow, confusing, I may never leave the city if I have to go by train). I am going to try to attach the pictures of our adventure below. While short, it was a very productive morning as we found a park where we could practice riding my bike with a passenger. This is much more difficult than the Chinese ever let on. I will admit that I have balancing envy whenever I see them perched so casually sidesaddle speeding down the street. My progress looks more like a jerky wobble that causes me to sweat buckets while my passenger sits astride behind holding on for dear life, but I can at least keep my passenger on (this is aided a great deal by the addition of foot studs that I picked up at Carrefour). It is my goal to two-person bike with grace before I leave China!