traveling

I’m not one to buy into stereotypes, but chinese drivers…..

/ knox / Leave a comment

…are absolute shit.

It still blows my mind the maneuvers some of these people perform while in traffic. Earlier today someone stopped, while a nice flow of cars were behind him, for no apparent reason. He got out, looked around, then got back in his car and drove off? wtf? why? why would you do that? why would you stop right in the middle of traffic like that?

I touched on this topic before but today I got road rage. You see some downright illogical shit, like people making left turns from the far right lane WHILE A STEADY FLOW OF TRAFFIC IS BEHIND THEM. why????????

Also, maybe its just me but I can’t recall seeing speed limit signs (ill look for them tomorrow), but that doesn’t matter since speeding is never a factor, its people driving slower than molasses that’s the issue!!!! :facepalm:

When you go to computer city to buy something, you will return 3-4 times because it won’t work the first time.

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I swear every time I go to  computer city to fix my computer or buy an item, I end up having to go back because something else goes wrong or the situation I went to fix never gets fixed. I haven’t been around because my laptop has been getting ‘treatment’ and I haven’t taken any pictures because my camera is under construction. oh boy oh joy.

Thing is, the place has great prices so you’re always drawn back and plus their aren’t very many places like it, but, they do mickey mouse jobs. For example, I went in to do some upgrading, I want to get 16gb of ram because one of my sticks flopped (I bought this stick from best buy wtf) and they put in another one. At the time, which was my mistake, I probably should have looked at what stick they entered, but I didn’t. I get home and I get the blue screen of death….wtf. So I open my laptop and I see some no name, off the wall stick that looks like Wang (actual person) just created in his basement. I go back there and I ask them for a name brand. She brings me a samsung, I get home, again blue screen of death. LOL. I laugh but its not funny. This place is a good 45 min away. Next afternoon I go back again, I tell them something is wrong, I did a diagnosis on it and of course the 2 sticks are different……they must be clocking different. They try to put 2 samsung sticks (per my suggestion), they turn on the comp (yea I’m not leaving this time) and instantly bsod. Had I gone home I think I would have thrown the fucking laptop against the wall. They tell me they don’t know whats wrong (I know what’s wrong these sticks aren’t actually samsung and they’re shit), but they suggest I just keep my current stick (which came with the laptop) and wait for them to find another one of my exact stick. How is it I go to this place for an upgrade and manage to go back home with only 8gbs of ram? LOL.

…..but that’s not all. I get home AND NOW MY KEYBOARD DOESN’T WORK ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?????? I push I and it’s y. I push 5 and its z. WOW. I call them and go off. They tell me that they will order me another keyboard. 4 days goes by…….I go down there….again…..they install the keyboard which only takes about 10 min, HOWEVER THE NEW KEYBOARD THEY JUST INSTALLED DOESN’T WORK LOL. The lady apologizes profusely and tells me she will order another. I go home…45 min away. 4 days later…..she calls me, I GO BACK DOWN THERE AGAIN……45 MIN. and finally my keyboard works. Bet I don’t have to go back down there again. WRONG…..WRONG.  Did I forget to mention my camera needs a new sensor, and this whole time it’s been under commission and is on the second floor of this place where I dropped it the first day because I thought…THOUGHT…I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone? HA! So yup, you got it…I have to go back down there to pick up my camera hahahaha.

Let’s see if the camera will be fixed the first time around……..

Well. I have finally caught up. From here on out my blogs will be current not archives.

/ knox / Leave a comment

No more entries from the past. Just in time for the new year!   All I can say is that now that I am talking PRESENCE, I have gotten quite used to living in China. I know of course this confuses many people that I live abroad but as I try to explain to folks that there are 2 different people in the world, there are those that stay near their family, comfort, home, and then there are explorers, people that go to far away lands and venture out. These type B people are the sort of people that discovered the americas, married locals, hell, america is full of people that they themselves left their home country for a better life in which was foreign to them. Try not to be confused and try to understand. Some people feel comfortable being uncomfortable if that makes any sense…..

anyways its nice to know that from here on out my thoughts will be current. I’m just glad to have an archive I can look back on and compare my *new in china eyes* to my now *veteran eyes*. funny because QD is a transit city most folks don’t last more than a season yet I’ve been here this long.

anyways, its late. but I’m excited to finally have fresh writing material. 🙂

If there’s anything you want me to cover, any ideas, by all means share. I could use some feedback. 🙂

Remember I spoke about living in Chengyang? (countryside)

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entry: 7/15/13

In case you don’t know, heres a link chengyang

Well I decided to pay a visit to some old friends over there. Mr. Wang, the guy whom I was teaching english in the complex and his kids, as well as the bathroom sandal wearing delivery kid, the market shop who used to deliver all my basic foods and just the overall community. They actually remembered who I was, and I was greeted with smiles and waves. To my surprise there are way more people there now than before, its crazy how fast china builds.  Anyways to get an idea of how country it was I took some pics.

going back home for 6 months – entry: 12/6/13 – 5/6/14

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entry: 5/6/13

This is around the time I took a break from china. It wasn’t that I had too, but rather, I needed to sort out some things back home, get a new chair, and catch up on some bills. What sucked about this was that I had just moved to wanda, and paid 6 months up front, I tried to sublease my place but its quite hard to do in the winter, esp during the holidays when most folks are headed home. So yea, basically I was just paying for storage. On a positive note I didn’t have a winter because I was back in LA. That was nice. I really didn’t do much during this time period. Just visited friends, hung out, practiced my chinese, got my new chair, bought a few ps4 games, upgraded my computer. In May when I returned, Chen picked me up, was greeted with a huge smile as tho Id left for 5 years. It was nice. When  I got home, nothing was rotten and making the house reek like last time (doh lol ) but everything was dusty as no had lived in the place for 6 months. I ended up extending my stay for the summer and meeting who is now my current roommate, Charlotte. She is from Spain. Pretty funny how we met, I was on a date with a russian girl and she saw me at the mall (wanda), where she also lived. I stand out obviously, so one night at a bar  she walked up and said she recognized me from the previous day the introduced herself. The following day we had dinner and became friends. We would go to bars together and hang out, eventually at the end of the summer we decided wanda and its management as per usual, were dicking on the rent, so we moved together in loashan, into a nice 3 bedroom about 5 min from the beach, with an ocean view and mountain view. pretty sweet, initially we were supposed to live with another guy Brian from Ireland whom we also met and lived at wanda, but he got a job in Shenzhen last min. so now its just me and Charlotte.

I guess I just skipped the entire summer, but nothing much happened except partying  (ahem), freelancing. Oh and I met a girl. Ill get into the ex-gf in my next entry.

Looks like I’ve just about caught up to current events. Almost, maybe like 1 or 2 more blog, but its just in time, it is Dec 31st!!! I can start 2015, with a 2015 blog! sweet! HAPPY NEW YEARS TO YOU ALL AND THANKS FOR READING MY BLOG. I APPRECIATE IT.

-knox

We party until 8am in China.

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entry:  8/16/13

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note the expression

The bar scene is something else, there are no rules, no carding, 24 hour alcohol policy, drinking in public, you name it. This of course means that us expats will stay out until the bar closes (5-6am), and then the heavyweights come out in the morning and eat street food (breakfast) and have more beers . The light weights….well…not so lucky.

I remember this one incident where this foreigner, I think German, who appeared to have just gotten out of a wedding, still wearing his tux, was passed out at the bar. The bar owner whom is a good friend of mine, asked Toye (my neighbor from Nigeria) to help wake him up, as the bar had closed. Well he shook him, yelled, did everything, the guy wouldn’t wake up, so my friend slaps the white out his teeth. hahahahaha oh yea he woke up, but the thing is, he was still in zombie mode. We help him outside and start asking him where he needs to go, HE HAS NO IDEA! This guy was so pissed he couldn’t remember his address, we didn’t want to just leave him passed out on the road in broad daylight either. Well then, maybe some more slaps will help, my boy starts giving him the smoothest slaps, front hands, back hands, slow mo, wind ups, all of kinds of creative slaps,  this guy is literally standing there taking them – everyone is cracking up laughing. Then this french girl Chole, intervenes we think shes jumping in to stop it …nope. She jumps in *let me get some slaps in* now they are taking turns serving slaps, it looked like double dutch or some kind of tag team WWE. Me and my boy Ishmael are laughing so hard, tears came down.  Eventually the guy starts feeling them as his cheeks begin to get rosy red lol. We yell WHERE ARE YOU GOING??????  He mumbles he has a flight at 9, he had only been there for a day to attend a wedding.

We throw him into a cab and tell the cab driver to drop him to the airport. That was the last we saw of Mr.Slaps.

random thought: I need me a traditional village girl. Tired of these bar hoodies.

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My delivery guy always shows up to my door in bathroom slippers

/ knox / 1 Comment

entry: 8/19/13

My delivery guy always shows up to my door in bathroom slippers (common summer attire in china).  He rolls the front of his shirt up to his chest to display his not so large belly. That’s common during the hot humid summer. Does the stomach generate more heat or something? Why not just flip the shirt behind your head, or roll the sleeves, why just the belly? They also like to walk around rubbing it like a Buddha even when they’re skinny. It’s not uncommon to see a pack of men walking around with their stomachs out, rubbing it in unison as they stroll oh so slow along the streets, all wearing bathroom sandals. ‪#‎weirdthingsyouobserveinchina‬

Anyways, I was outside eating an ice cream cone listening to music in my complex minding my business as per usual, when some random chinese man came up to me and began asking inquisitive questions (remember earlier I mentioned they are extremely curious people). Anyways after a brief conversation, he asked if I could teach english, I said yea thinking it was for him, but apparently its for his 4 year old daughter and her friend, 5 year old boy name Strong. I agreed. Aaaaaand just like that I have a weekend job with little kids. Welcome to China.

side note: Just booked my ticket to Bangkok. Leave in a month, going solo. Aw shiet.

Didn’t even realize I was eating pig feet. *sigh*

/ knox / 4 Comments

entry: 7/15/13

So now that I’ve moved to Chengyang (countryside), its gotten quite harder to find food. Before, living above the mall complex, I could just go down to the mall, and I had an entire floor with various restaurants, even a McDonald’s and Papa Johns. Well, now not so much. Theres 2 maybe 3 restaurants in the complex I live, which is sort of a village in the middle of no where called Blue Island, which is ironic because it sure as hell feels like I’m on one.  Chengyang is large, and there are many restaurants and supermarkets in DOWNTOWN Chengyang, but of course I don’t live there, I live on the outskirt where its freaking hard as hell to grab a taxi….BLUE ISLAND. The biggest supermarket near me is…..look at the pic above at the header..ya. 😦

Chen and Christina helped read, and recognize some food I may enjoy at one of the restaurants, one of the dishes was pork, in stew, with rice and seaweed. Now this stuff is really good I quite like it, but little did I know the bone Id be sucking meat off of was foot. Did I forget to mention I don’t really like swine and I’ve only been eating this because it taste good and quite frankly I don’t have many fucking options now do I? When in Rome.

Oh and look what I found in my stew the other day.

pretty sure this is normal and was supposed to be in the stew too. haha

outside, roaming around the complex. katrina came to visit for a couple of days from shanghai so its not been entirely lonesome.

outside, roaming around the complex. katrina came to visit for a couple of days from shanghai so its not been entirely lonesome.