Back to work again.
Break was relatively boring. I don't really know too many people around here other than Ming's girlfriend and her friends, and most my coworkers were busy all of vacation touring their families around China. This basically left me to fend for myself for a week and have some walking tours around luoyang... which were fun and interesting, but nothing to write home about.
A couple things that did keep me relatively busy were were spending money and going on strolls. Spending money was not only easy to do, but equally as easy to justify. I just moved into an apartment that isn't mine but also doesn't feel like mine. I still feel like I'm just going to be chillin' in this apartment temporarily, rather than for a year. So I decided to go to some of the local markets to try to find stuff to decorate my apartment with to make it more me. My journey was fruitless. It doesn't seem like anybody around here carries things to personalize you life with. I even went to the supermarkets but they didn't carry anything either. There are tons of markets around here, so I'm sure I'll be able to find one that carries something. I'm just tired of trying to use my very basic chinese to haggle prices - I usually get offered the white guy discount [4x the chinese price].
The other thing that kept be busy was going on strolls. I would say Luoyang is probably a cross between downtown Ann Arbor and inner city Detroit. It feels like Ann Arbor because I don't feel like I'm going to get shot when I walk around downtown - guns are illegal here and the police force is very well developed. I can hardly walk a block without seeing a cop. The nicer areas of Luoyang - Peony Square [mu dan guang chang 牡丹广场], the Wal-Mart area, and Xin Du Hui [新都汇] are all very developed cosmopolitan areas where middle and upper classes can enjoy shopping and dining at expensive restaurants [KFC and Pizza Hut. Suprised? So am I].
However, there's also the detroit side of Luoyang. Areas around Luoyang, and stretches between the areas, can get pretty run down. There's no graffiti, but there are plenty of boarded up areas, broken windows, and people who look like life has put them through the ringer. Out of respect of those people, I haven't taken any photos of those areas - however I probably will eventually. Unlike Detroit, when I'm walking around these areas, I don't feel threatened and there are no signs of gang activity or violence. People here appear to generally be very peaceful, regardless of their socioeconomic situation. If I find myself in a more run down neighborhood, I usually just feel sympathetic and out of place. Being white, I probably make up .00001% of the population in Luoyang and many of the people here have probably never seen or spoken to a white person before. You should see the look of shock on their faces when I speak to people in Chinese.
I'm looking forward to working again [I thought I'd never say that]. I enjoy having some sort of structure in my life, and it will be way easier to meet people at the work place than at random areas in Luoyang. I've heard that there are places where you can get great massages for $3-$5 around here, bathhouses where you can lay around in hot saunas all day for $8 or play pool and other games with friends, and a couple restaurants opened by Swiss expats that feature cheap imported beer, pizza, and live music. Hopefully I can make it through a year of this - its going to be a struggle ;-)
