While travel planning for this year's spring holiday (ie looking up 7 flights at one time) I encountered this helpful remark: "If you can accept the way turn in other airports,The following is the Hangzhou that we recommend for you to fly to the Lijiang of in turn(onward flight) the flight path.Please choose you feel quite the cheese in turn the city, we will search the service for you "

Since cheese is rare in China we are looking forward to this flight......I think..........

Someone pinch me. Worlds colliding....my Bob (my Chinese friend) just told me yesterday that the Newsboys (a Christian band from my golden high school years) performed at the largest university in Hangzhou. Well slap me and call me Franklin.
In other news......my new bike is completely safe. Too safe...so safe I can't even ride it. After being convinced by my classmates that the only way to keep my bike was to use two locks, I bought a second one. One bike ride later, the second lock refused to open. It won't even budge. I need to find a strongman to pick it up and take it somewhere to have the jaws of life clamp the lock off, but I've almost decided to roll over and call "uncle". I am quite sure my hypothetical fortune cookie proclaims: "A wise man say: stay the heck away from bicycles."

I take the 90 minute bus ride home from our other campus ever Tuesday afternoon. I usually entertain myself with my ipod, making up possible dialogues between Chinese people on the bus and sleeping. Last week, however as we got closer to the city, I passed a familiar university, but it had a new bright red banner stretched across the main gate proclaiming in yellow Chinese and English letters "Welcome to the 16th annual conference of alternative reality and teleexistance." If only I had a camera. After being in Hangzhou for a year and a half, someone finally let me in on the secret and welcomed me to an alternate reality........it explains so much....it's all clear now.

I am like a horse that needs to be put down, for her own good and the good of the others. I have impressed myself. I lost bike number 5 in less than a week. How can I even show my face at the bike shop? I swear they should just give me one out of pity. Speaking of horses, maybe I should just buy a horse instead. A horse would be a lot harder to lose than a bike......maybe....i guess horses can run away.

On the way to work, I lost one glove on the bus. (I bought them Sat.)

On the way home from work I tripped with my hands full of 90 Christmas boxes that my students made in front of a guy I am actually working to impress not earn his scorn.

On the upside, however, I have a new cell phone. Same number. Fiasco of course. The phone was registered in Ann's name and passport number because last fall my office took my passport to work on my visa. I hoped they wouldn't realize that my passport and my phone papers were different.....I mean, all foreigners look alike, right? Ann was just in Hangzhou with her passport until the day I lost the phone. A few days later she had the chance to send me an email attachment of the passport. I took it to China mobile. The girl pondered the paper for awhile and announced "Its too big". "Excuse me?" "The copy isn't the right size, it needs to be the size of a passport." "But look, here is Ann's name, her picture, her number the United States seal.....its all here." "It's the wrong size." "Why?" "It's the rules." "Can't you just skip the rules this time?" I asked getting close to tears of frustration. "No." "So, if I walk down the street to a copy place and get it resized, I can bring it back and it will be fine." "Yes." I leave and walk 4 blocks to the copy place, accomplish the goal and then return. Upon my return, the lady finds my copy satisfactory; she gets up and proceeds to make a copy of the copy at the machine behind her desk. My mouth just dropped open. Now why couldn't she have just resized it herself! i put my head on the table and answered in monosyllables until i got my phone reactivated. Honestly, I think sometimes the Chinese think of THE MOST DIFFICULT way to do something and then proceed accordingly.....mainly to keep everyone employed. Someone shoot me.

Notice: In case anyone was thinking of calling me, my phone has be absendated from my possession so I have no mobile phone access until further notice. Don't take it personally. You can always email :)

The phone was the last in a long line of possessions gone awry this month. I declared November to be a money saving month, but so far I have lost my keys (twice), lost my bike (I am now on my fifth one), broke my camera, broke my phone (got it fixed the same day I lost it), broke my toilet, had my atm card eaten and finally the phone the other day. So much for saving money....