Marco

Finally told my dad he was a vacuum. He turned to me and said 'I was just a leafblower, rustling leaves that have died many times before.'

Last night, went to have some beers with friends Laura made at the nearby Kaiyue Hostel. There were a couple Irish gents who had biked here from our shared 'motherland,' after that it was a clusterfuck of Euro-trash, Koreans and Chinese. One Swede was a riot and later a taxi caravan took us to 617 (pseudo-gay club ((probably only place in QD you will see transvestites )) with a bouncing dancefloor, a urinal/trough with a picture of a 3x life-size breast you pee on before the golden shower runs down into gold-fish laden water, or you can try and hit the fish directly) where he and Laura stole the floor with a Leprechaun-esque dance from the Chinese pole-dancers above. Think I am going to begin moving back to the East-side tomorrow, really will miss this area though. Its really easy to stay lost in the shadows here, with all cobble-stone alleys running up, down and around the hills. Its been an enriched few months living over here and I will always cherish the days spent in and around Guan Xiang Hill (观象山). My Mandarin has definitely progressed more than ever, even though I have not been studying as much as I hope to. Instead I feel the hours spent sitting on small stools in rustic restaurants intently listening and making friends was the main contributor to my near perfect 青岛话
-Marco Polo

Jonathan Spence

Really good series of lectures by J.S. Yesterday I finished up at RSP and am now just sitting on the computer in the middle of the afternoon, with a stomach full of baozi (包字) Think I am really going to enjoy these working hours. Hopefully I will not waste these precious extra hours, but instead will really bear down on developing my studies and Qingdao 山水 Adventures (www.qingdaossadventures.com).

忍

Since I am cutting my back on work hours and hopefully increasing study hours, it seems I may have more time to work on a blog. Will also try and use this as a study tool. Lots of craziness has happened as of late, including witnessing a beating involving blades and crowbars, some good climbing on Fushan, as well as my first requests for a www.qingdaossadventures.com trip.

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