matpat42's Blog

Yeah, I'm pathetic.
Date: Nov 12th, 2007 12:54:24 pm - Subscribe
Mood: ok


Well, not generally so, generally I'm pretty good. I'm pathetic when it comes to blogging. I mean, really every two weeks? That is sad.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Term ending, new term beginning, planning for the interns coming to my school to teach at the language camp we sponsor. I have also been the victim of a crime wave here in Tianjin. If you could call it that. My bike was stolen. This is actually a fairly common crime. One of my colleagues had four bikes stolen in a year. Fortunately, bikes are pretty cheap to replace. Unfortunately, mine was a fancy one with an electric motor. Cost two hundred bucks! Eh. Life goes on. I'm not gonna spend that kind of money on a bike again. So I went out and bought one of those little bikes that you can take inside. It folds up so if I get caught in the rain, I can take it home on the bus. It cost me about fifty bucks. Here, that is a lot of money. It is locked in the hallway outside my apartment door.

Now before anyone gets images of a big city crime wave, y'all need to understand that this is the closest thing to violent crime you have here. At least against strangers. There is the occasional fisticuff, and there is some domestic violence. But street crime is quite non-violent. I'm not sure why. It could have something to do with the Chinese Government's unwillingness to put up with the kind of shenanigans we do in the US. Private gun ownership simply doesn't exist. In fact, the only guns I see are the ones carried by security police taking money from stores and to banks. Even the average cop on the street doesn't carry a piece. Imagine an American city of 12 million people (NYC?) with unarmed cops. Not a pretty picture.

Anyway, back to my being busy. I finally broke down and went shopping for clothes. Now, being somewhat taller than the average chinese man, and, well, being fatter, I can't just go buy my clothes off the rack. So I have to go the expensive route and have them made. So the process is beginning. I'm having some slacks made, and I'll be getting some blouses made. All by hand and to order. It is ridiculously cheap. The tailor I am using is really quite good. I buy the material and take the measurements to the tailor and two weeks later, clothes. I'll be picking mine up in a few days, I'll let you know how they look and fit.
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