A day in a life

This morning I woke up at eight a clock which is quite unusual for me since I had the day of. As I it got closer to nine, and I still in bed, the strangest thing happened... the bed started to shake. I was surprised for a second but this was neither the first nor the second time I had lived earthquake. About an hour later there was another.

I had talked to my colleague Richard to go to the vegetablemarket. He had a student over that told us about how the class had ended with everybody running out. I went down to take a shower and since there was sun today I didn't have to use the heater and it was free. Electricity bill is a big problem for me since it costs 50 us dollar cents to heat up the apartment for an hour. I walked to the market alone since Richard was busy and was surprised. All of the students were outside sitting in the parks around campus or in the town trying to kill time. It was a beautiful day so.

Richard had invited me for a lunch so I called another teacher Natalia and we went over there. She told us a better explanation of the events from class since she had been teaching.

Shortly before one Natalia got a call from our contact to the school telling us to stay out of the apartment at one thirty since there would be another earthquake then. I went to the internet and checked out www.newsnow.co.uk and found out that at least five had been killed and it had happened just 100 km away from us.

I took the book I'm reading, The Historian but only read a few chapters since I got disrupted when student called me to come and talk to a group of them. I did and found out that their dormitory had been locked up and it was most likely that they would sleep outside tonight. Later a "leader" of the school told us that there would be an earthquake at 16 and another at 24.

At five I decided it would be better that my parents heard this from me rather than reading it one a website somewhere so I called them (nine in the morning Icelandic time). My mom was very worried told me I should call them every now and again and to get ready to evacuate with short notice I promised and also to let my H&M aunt know that I was alive.

I took a nap and when I woke up again I decided it was dinner time. I walked to one of my favorite restaurants but they were, believe it or not, out of rice. The dormitories had been opened but many students were still outside. I heard some where going to sleep outside no matter what.

That sums up my day,
Úlli

p.s.
Tim I'll tell my aunt they need a bigger collection in 36. The weather was thankfully good... It would have been hell to go through this all in cold weather.

We's the boyz from Illinoyz...

Alright, I confess...I'm guilty of not reading the blog in quite some time. After Adam's last blog about his 100 hour work week I spiralled into a deep depression over my dear friend's lost innocence. But I found my way back when I heard that people were blogging about eating dogs. My roommate has a dog that I absolutely despise, and I often think about eating her. She's a mutt on speed. Jokes...I actually love dogs (especially with Worcestershire sauce).

School is weighing down heavily on me here. I thought everything was pretty easy for the first few months, but then exams and projects decided to weigh-in, and they've made mincemeat of me in a few short rounds. Just finished a mammoth e-mail to Ulli, in response to that novel he sent out, oh, about a month ago (yes, my reply lagged by a month; lay off). My fingers are exhausted and bloodied, but I blog on. I'm actually on Thanksgiving break right now, through the end of next week. I'll be flying out for Texas on Wednesday, the land of 10 gallon hats, 10 pound steaks, and the conservative right. I'll have to hide the stamp on my forehead that denotes my status as a card-carrying Democrat, lest I be lynched upon arrival in that great red state. I'm really looking forward to it, though. We've had our first snows here, and it's supposed to be in the mid 70s there. What's the weather like in China this time of year? If only we knew someone who was there....

Been lazing around today, enjoying no class. Still in my pajamas, actually. How bout you Adam??? Sorry to rub it in that you haven't left the office in months. I've heard there are people in your office who haven't left since ol' Mags Thatcher was at No. 10 Downing. Walker, do fill us in on more of the details of your business. I feel I have a vested interest after sitting in on your highly formal recruitment talks here in Chicago last winter.

I ripped my favorite pair of jeans yesterday, and I'm quite distraught. Nice pair, from H & M, so I was wondering if Ulli could ask his aunt to have H & M send more 36" inseam jeans to their stores in Chicago. Dreadfully difficult to find, those 36s.

Well, I hear the closing bell on this blog of randomness. I wonder if I've succeeded in convincing all of you that I'm drunk. Though about Scobie's last night...

Ciao ciao,
Timmy

Man Bites Dog

Well...

Ten weeks in China and life is getting better. Last time I blogged the culture shock was killing me but that time of depression is behind and I've started to enjoy the life more. Last weekend the school invited us to Lu Shan Mountains which is a vacation place close to where i live and both Chang-Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong went there to rest. The latter one actually lived there for nine years if I understood that correctly. The landscape is beautiful and this was a great weekend. The following week I started felling worse and worse and finally I got a cold so now I sit here at home trying to do something interesting. I've heard so many bird flu jokes on msn when I tell people that I'm sick...

One historic thing happened in Lu Shan I ate dog for the first time knowingly. The funny thing is that I had eaten it before and quite liked unknowingly. I'm such a smart guy I barely know the difference between pork and beef.

Next week I'm going to Shanghai. I've been meening to go there for quite some time since I have an aunt there and finally on Saturday I went to buy a ticket. I actually only got ticket one way and if I don't find one back I'll be in train for 12 hours, but you know when you have to save your money you do stuff. About my aunt, I actually have only met her like 5 times in my life since she has lived in Sweden for almost all my life and is very busy (she works for H&M). Also this part of my family I don't know well. These are the children of my grandfathers sister and my grandfather died when my mom was 12 years old. But still I think knowing your family is important so I'm going to visit her and her daughter.

The teaching is going well and I got good response from the survey they had among students. Only thing they complained about was that I was frequently late. I excuse myself with saying that in Iceland it's quite different and that when a class starts at 8 o'clock it will never begin until 8:05. But I guess I'm not in 'Kansas' anymore.

Well it's all quiet on the eastern front hope I here from the other one soon.

Zaidian,
Úlli