I promised big news. Well it's not just big. It's provincial sized! Multi-provincial sized! If you haven't guessed it yet, I would say that it's pretty obvious that I am starring on a Dating Game Show on Zhejiang Province TV. You can see me with my successful partner above. Her names is Good Good (no, not kidding) and I am sure we're destined for a long and fruitful relationship. Especially considering after the show she told me that, "Glad it's just a game, huh? I'm really busy right now, but maybe I'll see you later." Oh well, it's the hotness that counts, right? For all my Western viewers, I know what you're thinking--not hot. But in China, this girl is pretty much Angelina Jolie. I have more thoughts on this experience, but they perhaps require polishing. May I note that the one sketchy part of this show was performed with a seaweed barrier!

A lot has been happening. So many things I ought to tell you! From two trips to Nanjing to my amazing skills at my job to my bicycle's special trick. So might as well start! Above is my first trip to Nanjing on independent travel weekend. Last quarter I met peasants in a village, this one I decided to "casually climb" a mountain in Nanjing. Well I almost died about 2/3 of the way up, but I was able to pull myself together and look smooth for this picture. My mood was not helped by the numerous old grandpas running up and down the mountain yelling, "This isn't steep! This isn't tall!" Crazy communists! Nanjing is in the background.

The next week was group travel weekend. But instead of heading for the mountains of some remote oppressed minority, we went back to Nanjing. Don't get me wrong, our Director wanted to go the poor oppressed minority, but three days of rain thwarted him. I am not sure what my roommate is doing, but it's pretty much his standard thing. Sai Xi is a good man. This time we visited Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum, which I found scintillating, as I pounded out 26 pages on him last spring.

Who is that man? Only by far the handsomest employee at Wind and Snow Outdoor Store. Oh yes, I, for four hours a day four days a week, peddle the likes of North Face, Mountain Hardwear, and more to rich Chinese people. The real mystery to me is why the don't just by the fake one that looks the same, but I haven't brought that up yet. So far my proudest moment is selling a polar fleece jacket to a man and his wife. Big deal you say? I say you say "light but warm, quick drying nicely fitting guaranteed quality and 25% off polar fleece jacket." Yeah, that's what I thought.Seeing as I have no picture of my devious bicycle, I have chosen this unflattering one of my co-workers. My bicycle has a special trick: when you ride fast, the chain falls off. Perhaps this doesn't sound so bad, but it is less than ideal. As in look here is a huge thunderstorm coming--ride fast! Or, that crazy electric bike rider might squish me--ride fast! Seeing as I commute half an hour to work each way on my bike every day, my hands were getting a little black from chain grease. I recently took it to a local guy with a wrench, and whatever he did seems to have solved it. But I am waiting until I really need to GO FAST! I assume then it will fall off.

I have some more really Big NEWS... but you'll just have to wait until Monday or so for that. Can't blow it all in one day.

I have become the stuff of Legend. At least, somehow, here in Hangzhou where faulty stories transferred by thousands of miles of wire become even more faulty. The newly arrived students were convinced that upon my arrival in China 6 months ago, I did not speak a word of Chinese. But somehow through superhuman acts of improvement, I have arrived at my current state. Which, as far as I can tell, is also overestimated. Or how about that it took me three weeks to make a note on the bamboo flute (but arduous study made me the best). Neither one of those facts is true. Or the fact that I had a life threatening illness on fall break. Not quite. But I am probably foolish to shed Truth on my legend.

Who wants to know that in reality my fall break illness was a result of hiking 27 kilometers barefoot through brush with a Chinese peasant on my shoulders? Or that my incredible concentration when learning Chinese is due to the lighted candle I hold my palm over?

No, no one, I would think.

Fully aware that this might backfire and cause her to kill me from afar, I will post this picture and bravely announce that today marks one year for Alice and me together. And that it has been quite a year. Above is Dance Marathon, probably around hour 12,327.

You try and claim this: I went on vacation to Shanghai and back. In 6 hours. Aside from the astounding speed of my roommate's and my trip, we also visited a really old church, the Shanghai City Planning Museum, the Bund, a psychotic tunnel under the river to the other side, and Asia's third tallest building. We ended by literally dashing through subways and hurdling barriers (think James Bond, but more handsome) to make our train. Whew. I hope you're as tired as I am.

I would say that my brainwashing, I mean course on the Chinese Communist Party, is going well. We have only met once so far, but the effect has been impressive and immediate. Not only am I clearing up a lot of misunderstandings I had, but I am all important vocabulary to properly discuss the subject. The next time students in Beijing cause a ruckus, I will be more than prepared to go out and explain to them the error in their ways. A recent excerpt from class:

Teacher: What function does Marxism-Leninism have?
Me: It is the basis for Chinese socialism. It must be adjusted for China's situation.
Teacher: How do we know the "correct road"
Me: We must study Mao Ze Dong Thought and Deng Xiao Ping Theory
Teacher: Yes.

As we read about the possible need for class struggle in the future and the elimination of the capitalist class (it is necessary for one group, preferably high ranking officials, to get rich first, and then make everyone else rich too), my teacher shows no indication that he finds this to be, well, polished. Meanwhile, I am trying not to laugh. But I suppose as a political science professor and member of the CCP, he's had a lot more practice than I have.

Above is my professor, Yang Laoshi and me, finishing up fall semester