Just Ridiculous

Jan. 28, 2004

Well Friend,

Let me apologize, in the beginning, for the quality of this
email. When I first arrived in China, I was certainly a master of
the English language; however, I have recently been feeling the
slippery slide down into incoherence.

I will blame all of this on the Chinese. Them and their damn
New Years! For 358 days of the year, the Chinese work. They
work their little asses off. Then right about now, they stop
working, drink massive amounts of their stomach curdling
alcohol (Bai Jiu) and light off massive amounts of fireworks, in
the most irresponsible way possible. How irresponsible?
Imagine a game where small children are encouraged by their
parents to hurl medium sized explosives at foreigners (me). I believe that living here will be the closest thing to war that I will ever experience.

A side effect of this reckless regard of human safety is that I
have massive amounts of free time. I usually average 4 hours
of Chinese television a day. I follow this with two or three
dvds. As always, I think about studying Chinese but never any
action. Yet, amazingly, my Chinese improves. The other day I
had a whole conversation about the difference between
American toilets and Chinese toilets with my landlord.

This time has also given me a chance to really understand
China. It is one wacky place. A few comrades and I have
started a new activity, which I call "Hutong Creeping". First, let
me ask you a question. Where do a billion people live? In
Beijing, 8 million people used to live in a rectangular housing
unit known as a Hutong. As 2008 approaches, the PRC has
taken an anti-hutong stance. Effectively destroying millions of
homes and forcefully moving the people to the countryside,
you know this shit happens, especially here. The hutongs of
today are where the real chinese live. Lacking indoor
plumbing and heating, with up to ten people living in the size
of my old dorm room, it makes sense why the gov't doesn't
want me to see these places. Late at night we quietly creep.
When walking through the hutongs you feel as though you are
traveling back 300 years. Basically, like a bunch of gawking
tourists in a museum, we observe these peoples lives. I have
truly never felt a more exhilarating high on life until the
hutongs.

Sincerely believing that I have way too much free time,


Jason