life's adventures This is the story of my wanderings through Asia

Acquainting myself with this small city of only 6 million in the northern province of Laoning has not been what I imagined. Stupid right, I even tell other people you should never go anywhere where you have built your own expectations. So here I am, spending far too much time wishing I had gone somewhere else, or done what I had planned in March, or stayed in Italy.

The washing machine arrived, the box is huge and lots of fun to play in, although that’s quite idiotic when said out loud. I have started work and hate the methods used, but realize that I am basically a useless tool for entertainment and that I can work here for a year, get paid well and never, not once have to use my brain. It will be busy anyway trying to complete and pass the first half of my PG diploma.

I remember bragging that I would be living in the most beautiful city in China – that’s according to any Chinese person you talk to in China. It is coastal, so nice beaches, and more modern as it is a port city. Well after a week, I have accepted begrudgingly that the beaches are no more than smelly rocky rubbish dumps covered in overweight pale and floundering Chinese, the water just brown sludge as far as the eye can see, dead fish lapping against the legs of kids playing in the shallows. The city is young, about as young as New Zealand, still, it is equally as dirty as any Chinese city, and if you consider having Starbucks and Subway modern chains, well then yes it is more modern than Zhengzhou.