Oh my friends, in the unlikely event that any of you have been checking this with mild regularity, I'm sorry. China has swept me off of my comparatively over-sized feet.

I'm not sure what my last post was, I think I mentioned that I was in Nanning? Perhaps? I'm unable to read previous postings for whatever reason. Chairman Mao's not down with blogging I guess.

Either way, the bus ride to Nanning was the last of roughly 30 odd hours of traveling. The bus' accommodations were a welcome change to the spine-compressing airplane seats. In fact the bus had no seats at all, rather 36 beds designed with the petite Chinese in mind.


The Hong Kong skyline is staggering. I was so thankful for a place to lie down, and my eyes were heavier than the smog above me. I fell asleep dizzy as the small break in skyline obstructions proved to be key-hole views into one million more.

Please forgive me, I'm not so hot at this pictographing business...

Anyway, so I got to Nanning refreshed and excited. The city's smell is violently distinct. Garbage, Fried vegetables, stale air, and plants. Everything is lush, and clean. It's clean because people need jobs, and no matter how much you clean, you can continue to clean, the population serves this purpose well. There are a minimum of five Chinese folks holding down their grocer fort.
Here is the view from our apartment



This city has smitten me more than I could have imagined. The bicycle situation is mental. If there's room for you and your bike, that's your green light, straight up. People here are next level, entire family's travel on scooters, with babies precariously dangling on their mother's back. Fearless fathers navigate the streets with one hand on the throttle, one talking on a cell phone, and both anticipating cigarette rotation duties.
The people here are also beautiful. In appearance and attitude. All the ladies are so petite and reserved, but also weak at the knee for broken-Mandarin foreigners haha.
Every store here is P-Mix, so everyone is either fashionable, or has some inappropriately phrased english on their shirts. The real style can be found in the older generation however. Beat-up knickers, old solid color button-ups, despite the sweltering heat. And mega loafy-loafers.

Oh yeah, the ENTIRE city is a skatepark?? What the piss? Marble ledges as far as the eye can see. As a result of the bike culture. Every staircase has an equivalently sloped bank on it. Every single one. It's mental, I'm going mental here. It's everything I could possibly ask for.
--One day I will live here.

The first afternoon JP and I went to the University to hang out with the local skaters. It was hot though, like face-meltingly hot. So we climbed a tree instead, and got to know each other. He shared his vision for skateboarding in this city, and there are really cool things at work here. It's in the very early stages, but we have been provided for immensely.

The kind folks here hooked me up with free Mandarin lessons. It's coming along too. I can manage on my own on the streets if I really need to.
Here's the classroom.



I usually go for 3 or 4 hours a day.

---There are so many people here, I love it. There's always something going on. I accidentally dropped my wallet, and it literally took 17 seconds before it touched the ground. Also, nobody has seen a "Why-goa-ren" (aka white folk) here before, much less one on a skateboard with extremely curly hair. The attention I get when skateboarding through the streets is probably equivalent to what my Dad would get if he were to run errands sporting a wedding dress. Everytime I look up, I see at least 5 pairs of eyes meet mine.
--t's a little much, so I chopped the locks to take an edge off. I'm sorry to everyone I promised I was going the distance. I meant it too.

Apology #3: I have decided to loosely neglect chronology. I have too much to say to organize it.

Day 4 was wicked. Wicked Awesome. The folks I'm staying with (JP, Amy, and James) have made some friends here through participating in 'English Corner', which is pretty much a place for the Chinese folk to come and hone. One of these friends' name is Phillip. Phillip is a CLASSIC stereotypical Chinese business man. He took us out for a night on the town. We went to this mental restaurant where we had our own private room. He ordered an obscene amount of food. Pig lung, whole fish, black chicken, vegetables that 'enhance' your manhood, fresh jasmine tea. Oh my. "Hao Cheeu" Good Food.
We then went to a bar where he tried to get us drunk. He is unaware of our purpose out here hah, and our ethics. But it was in good fun. We played a classic Chinese dice game as Chinese pop blared through the speakers above.


I think I will continue writing tonight or something. I have much more to say, I think.

Everything is well, everything is great.
The only problem I'm currently facing is one regarding my health. For reasons I'm unsure of, my back is giving me issues, to the point where I can't even skate, which is a bummer. I think it's a recurring thing from when I pinched a nerve in it last year. So if you feel like sending up some words, that would be greatly appreciated. ALSO , we need a lot of words for finding a place to build a skatepark. We are very very close to renting this amazing facility which would help our purpose lots lots lots lots lots. Bye.

----Alright, this picture thing is not working so hot, but I have daily computer access for a while, so I"ll try again later. Much like most things right now, this post is Helter Skelter. you get the idea.