Living Abroad

I have had several conversations with our leaders here about long term positions. Obviously it wouldn't be in the immediate future, but it is of interest to me. Which, of course, probably scares some of my friends and family. I think it would actually be very cool to be here in 2008. Then I could go to the Olympics. I would like to study Mandarin first because having little ability to communicate is tough.

Last night, we went to have another hair wash and massage. We went to a different salon that was staffed of mostly men with kind of punk haircuts of various colors. There were a series of mirrors in the middle that had a chair on either side, making a station. I sat at a station that was on the other side of a man getting a hair cut. I recall when we walked in and sat down this man seemed a little agitated about something. My stylist started in sudsing my hair and all of a sudden I hear the man on the other side yell. He gets up, knocks a glass of water to the floor, kicks the electrical surge on the floor and continues swearing up and down. It was, at this point, quite evident that he was swearing although we had no idea what about. It seems like there is a lot of agitated speaking here on a daily basis, but that is more my interpretation of the tone. This was the first time, I actually saw someone throw a public fit and get a little violent. After our washing, we were standing outside waiting for someone in our party and one of the stylists stepped onto the sidewalk without looking and caused a bicyclist to kareen into a parked motorcycle. Her bike got entwined with the reflector of the motorcycle and the salon personnel had to get some tools to cut her loose. Fortunately for me, their bad luck did not come my way and I had another excellent massage. After that, I went for a facial. Grand total for the evening - $4. I think the last and only facial I got was about $90 in the United States. Its definitely worth getting it all done here.

Next post - Xi'an, I hope. Ciao.