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  Chengdu, China
Saturday, September 27, 2008

I witnessed the most awesome storms ever this past Monday and Tuesday night. The lightening was seriously every other second. The first night I woke at about 5AM and just watched and listened until it was time for class at that point on Tuesday the storms had stopped. The power had gone off sometime that night as well. Biking was just hazardous near the puddles which are everywhere. I think this was the day a nice gross puddle splashed onto me by a passing motorist. I don't think he realized my foreign mutterings were not the nicest of words.

Tuesday afternoon I came home from my calligraphy class, which was awesome because we learned how to play mahjong, and after a few brief internet minute the power was out again. It was out until I had to go to class. It was interesting biking past the hotpots with candle lit tables and a generator powered kitchen.

After class I went to study at one of the western places so I would have light in case the power was not back on (which it was, thank God!). But as I was biking back at 10pm I saw that it was starting to lightening again. So we had a spectacular light show that night (which I stayed up to watch and got a little video of). I woke up the next morning at 6:30 though and it was STILL raining super hard and lightening very often. So I went back to sleep and woke up closer to class time. I noticed the lightening had cooled a bit so I took a super fast shower. The rain however had not. It was so bad they delayed class an hour. Even with that delay I got to school late because whole roads were flooded out (like feet of water). It was funny. Most of my chinese class is in the apartments and some in the dorms and every time someone from the apartments stumbled in they looked like a slightly worse version of a drowned rat. One of the student's taxi driver flat refused to get him to the school and took him back.

So its let up a couple of times but mostly been raining since that point. It was fine in a not fine sort of way until it started getting colder. (Be jealous. It's been in the 80s here). Now that is in the low 60s and there is nice cold rain... its just not a nice combo. And this week is the week Chengdu decided to miraculously sprout wind. So I can't even bike with an umbrella. I broke down and purchased a poncho though. It is a sweet poncho if only for the fact that it is designed for bikers and maximizes my dryness.

On Wednesday I got my Tai Chi uniform. I will take a picture soon to show you the awesomeness that is my uniform.

Thats all for now since I have a final tomorrow morning (yeah on Sunday. I had class today too). THey moved our Monday and Tuesday classes to Saturday and Sunday to give us a nice long weekend for the Chinese National Holiday (which is this Wedneday - Friday).

I am not sure what I am going to do yet. But since 1 billion people have the day off traveling may be a bit intense. I think I will use most of the time to just regroup. Alright, thats all for now. Till next time!

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