rice to water

this past week -  one messed up puppy. 

in preparation for national week, the yangshuo gang has been plotting and scheming for a trip to beijing.

unsure whether i'd have enough money and the comfort of getting my passport back, i put off booking for as long as possible.

and here i am, the day before, half a wreck and ready now, more than ever, for some serious alcohol intake. (sorry mom and dad, but really.)

first, a week full of lessons. 

as usual my weekday adult classes went swimmingly, or something close to it.

but saturday. my my my.

his name is tony and i wish he had never stumbled into my life.

tony is eight years old and the most dreadful creature i've yet to encounter.

after two and a half hours of trying to soothe and calm the little demon, i gave up. sick of the fidgeting, copy-catting, light-on-and-off-disco-switching and ear-piercing screaming, i gave the little bugger a look that someone really scary might find moderately threatening.

too eager for class to end, i reluctantly started a game of duck, duck, goose; which would inevitably make one little girl cry. needless to say, i gave her a gold sticker that lesson.

after my older, afternoon class restored some hope; i went home and passed out. utterly drained.

after spilling coffee on my laptop, laptop breaking, me about to screw the trip and buy a new laptop, laptop fixing itself - things finally started to look up. had secured my passport and ticket to beijing and the week's classes were done. but i had yet to receive my monthly salary. i foolishly put off booking the return ticket. then the universe so graciously threw me another curve ball.

to avoid eternal shame, i'll block out the rest of the story and skip to the most dreadful part - the sonsofbitches at the bank blocked my guilin bank card.

apparently i have to return to yangshuo to unblock it, which i have neither the time nor money for. i need to access my account to get money, i need money to access my account. starting to feel a bit too much like a character in a joseph heller novel.

with the help of my school principal the nightmare has been postponed - til i get back from beijing, anyway.

and with further help from my new favourite person - dj dribble - i have a return ticket!

(thank you muchly, christopher!)

god bless fluent english speakers.

i'm ready to block out the past week, and next week. for now, beijing is all there is.

we can sort the fuzzy bits out after some down-time.

on another note: have been reevaluating the optimum proportion of rice to water, in order to obtain that supreme sticky and nommy rice-factor in a meal. these experiments have yet to be concluded, as i have found myself more in the noodley-mood lately. suggestions welcome.

(( top 5 knee-slapping, side-splitting names on my class registers:))

   5. sheldon

   4. fanny

   3. happy

   2. strawberry

   1. milk (?!)

happy national day, folks.