No, I didn't quit blogging. It was mostly because I had insane difficulties getting past the Great-Firewall-of-China, and when I did get through, blogging for an hour or two wasn't high on my priorities list. Did I mention I went to China before I disappeared? I probably forgot to, I can't remember.
So, catch up from the last time I blogged- I had my final exam, and it was absolutely abysmal. I'm almost certain I failed, and I came out of the exam room heavily traumatized. In the end I just prayed that all the other assessments I had went alright, and made up for how poorly I did in that one particular exam. If I have to repeat the semester I might go mad, because I hate dermatology and ophthalmology THAT much. It's not that I think they're unimportant or whatever- God knows how much I appreciate having good skin- but goddamn it's just not something I feel like I can do. Studying the subject just... doesn't interest me. I don't even read something and think, "huh, that's cool"--- it's really more of a "kill me now" reaction every time I'm forced to read a related textbook.
After my final exam, I packed all my luggage and left for my parents' house the next day. That's because I'm moving residences again, and I had to drag all the luggage back. The day after I flew out of Australia to China. That was to visit my totally-not-demented-but-definitely-crazy grandmother. It was an absolute NIGHTMARE of an experience for me, visiting her. Her impression of me seems to have stagnated at the time I was 8, and you can imagine how I felt when she interrogated me on whether I had bowel movements in the morning, because apparently I only used the toilet very shortly. Well firstly, the place where grandma lives in humid as hell, and because she refuses to move out of the government-assigned-housing that my parents once lived in, the toilets she had was less than 2 square meters and you had to squat over a pit to take a shit. I'm sure most people can understand why I didn't want to stay long in a small-confined stinky toilet pit, in a town with 40 degree humid weather.
Oh yeah- the weather. I was sweating constantly, dehydrating myself- it was really disgusting being soaked in your own sweat 24/7. I mean I tolerate it at the gym, because I shower almost immediately after, and it's sort of okay. This is just a whole different level of unpleasant.
Then grandma herself, right. She has this insane obsession with Chairman Mao. She's not religious but if she was, Chairman Mao would replace Jesus. Apparently Mao has no flaws and freed everyone in China and now we live in a glorious new age of wealth and prosperity. I guess it's good for grandma to live in her delusions... it'd shatter her to walk out the street and see the conditions people lived in, and the poverty people have to endure. It was really painful for me though, to endure her delusions and sort of play-along with them... grandma's old, after all. I think she'd be happier if she continued to believe in what she believed in. Reality is too cruel.
Not that I'll stop complaining about China. If I get lung cancer in the future, I blame the air pollution in China. I felt like I could hardly breathe- the sky was grey from the smog, everyone I passed by had a cigarette in their hands or smelled of cigarettes--- then when they opened their mouth they'd look super-sinister with their nicotine-stained teeth and absolutely horrid breath. Then there's the shitty traffic where there is a complete disregard of traffic laws. Apparently a red light means "go if you can" and sometimes I don't even know why they bother with traffic lights. Pedestrians share the same path with MOTORCYCLISTS and too often people riding electric bikes will creep up behind me (those things are silent) and I feel like I've experienced way too many near-misses for my liking. I know a golden quote from one of the Hangover movies is "BUT DID YOU DIE", except I really didn't appreciated when I applied myself to the same context.
From what I've said you might gather I didn't have the most wonderful time in China--- but surprisingly, I think I had the time of my life. More to come in the next post- I'm too jet-lagged to keep blogging.
No comments:
Post a Comment