friday a lot of us went out to bao'an. bao'an is a part of shenzhen that is not in the special economic zone. i tend to think of it as the boonies, but that's an unfair assessment here in china. it is still quite populated, and most people back home would never think "boonies" while driving through bao'an. in fact, the guy whose apartment we stayed at lives closer to kfc, mcdonalds, and other western food than we do out here in yantian. it is, however, full of factories and much more shielded from westerners. anyways, once out there we went to this place that was sort of like a state fair, but a permanent fixture. there were carnival games, a large area for dancing or badminton playing, ping pong and pool tables, and of course, a roller skating rink. originally, we all headed out there for the outdoor roller skating. upon finding out we could not bring beer in, however, we opted to spend a little more time outside (typical). our group of 20 or so waiguoren (foreigners) quickly attracted a crowd, however, and within 10 or 15 minutes of being there we were never without an audience of upwards of 60 chinese people. i'm always amazed at how fascinating they find our mundane activities. the best thing i can think of to compare it to is if a group of blue people walked into a crowded place in america. people will literally just stand and stare and take pictures for hours. anyways, after getting a few too many beers in my system, i decided it was time to show the chinese how well i roller skate. in case you haven't been in recent years, it's way harder than you remember as a child. especially drunk. so i go rent my skates (for about a dollar) and get laughed at for how big my feet are. then i put them on and try to go skating. i was doing ok.. at first. basically, the second i wobbled out into the rink a chinese couple came and grabbed one of my hands. upon seeing this, another random chinese guy came and grabbed my other hand. so for a good 5 or 10 minutes i am drunkenly skating around with chinese strangers holding my hands. after that, my skating went down hill. i fell... well, i won't say how many times. my friend gavin and i were skating for a bit and he decided to take a video. it's about 1 minute 30 seconds long and i fall twice. my knees are still bruised. the whole night was incredibly fun, however, and i hope to do it again sometime before i leave.
anyways, then today after class we went to dongmen, a crazy chinese shopping/loitering/congregating part of town and stumbled upon another permanent carnival type area. we went in to play pool, however, once we found the pool tables linda, jess, and i noticed directly next to the pool tables was a paint your own ceramic piggy bank place. obviously, we beelined it for this place. then, to make things better, it was only 10 kuai (maybe a dollar fifty). so we all pick out crazy asian ceramic piggy banks and paint them while drinking beer. i'll be posting pictures soon, so look out. i decided to paint a cow. i won't say it turned out beautifully, but it was adequate and the chinese girls who sat down next to me to watch me paint it repeatedly told me it was very pretty (ha). anyways, after i finish it, i get up to go to the bathroom. when i come back, kofi has painted blood on it's horns and face. while at first i was like 'what the fuck? why did you fuck up my cow?' the second i looked at it, i realized it was so absurd, i couldn't be mad. anyways, now i have something creepy enough to leave next to my dog statue, so i'm happy.
also, we may or may not be getting a puppy. later. we stopped by today and looked at puppies and they're just so fucking cute. nothing is set in stone, but i nearly came home with one today, so i figure by the time we get back from break and are seriously looking at them, i will be easily persuaded. and while it's probably a bad sign that i'm putting this in the same paragraph, i think linda and i are going to go and get coats tailored tomorrow (!!!). AND i found out where to go buy legit fake shit here. life is looking good here in china.
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