We had some rain today on and off, and when it rained it really poured, so I'm glad I wore my rain jacket and water resistant pants. Otherwise a pleasant day to roam around Meizhou once again to shop and explore. On the bus ride over there was a TV playing a DVD of some apparently famous singer performing live shows - it kind of reminded me of a Chinese version of Branson shows or something you might see on PBS occasionally.
I really loaded up today on cheap DVDs and 'Engrish' shirts, and one really cool shirt that has an olde timey Harley Davidson on it - the one that looks basically like a beach cruiser bicycle with a motor.
For DVDs I got:
-Curb Your Enthusiasm seasons 1-5
-Sopranos seasons 1-6
-compilation dvd with 18 films including Fight Club and Oceans 11 trilogy
-compilation dvd with a bunch of chinese films, a couple that I watched in my college film classes, Wong Kar Wai's "Chungking Express" and "2046." I just tested it and I'm kinda bummed it doesn't have English subtitles - oh well I'll probably use it as a gift before I leave.
-compilation DVD with all 6 Star Wars, X-Men, and the new Die Hard
Rebecca and I decided to visit the university in Meizhou today, so we took a motorcycle taxi to it and walked around for awhile. There were a couple places where you could walk up on a hill with sidewalk paths and stairs into some woods. A few student couples were back there kissing - taking advantage of what little privacy they can get in this country. We wondered around the really cool campus some, and saw many high school students - we assume it was a high school visit day, being Saturday and all.
Walking along I spotted human-sized hamster wheels and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try them out. Here is a picture of me on the hamster wheel:
Afterwards we wanted to head back to the bus station, so we hopped in a pedicab - a bicycle rickshaw - and pointed to a bus station on our map that we thought was the correct one. It was not the right one and they didn't have a bus to go back to Shuizhai. But outside were a few taxi drivers or something who were trying to get us to take their taxi back to Meizhou for 120 yuan - much more than a bus ticket back. We asked them about the bus station but they kept offering the taxi. It took me a minute to figure out they were just trying to take us in their taxi and prevent us from taking a bus or going to another bus station. Damn they were persistant, we finally walked away and one of the men kept talking to us, and even lightly pinched my arm to get my attention as we tried to walk away, and they followed us for a few blocks in their taxi and motorcycle. Looking back it was kind of funny, but at the time I was losing my patience and starting to get frustrated since they persisted so much almost to the point of stalking.
So we finally take a motorcycle taxi to the correct bus station but we are too late. Damn. We call the teachers who assist us at Shuizhai for some help - we called Lily and she offered to give us a ride back, since she and her husband happened to be in Meizhou as well and were about to leave. They came by and picked us up at the bus station and took us to eat at KFC, buying us each a meal. Rebecca and I are extremely grateful for Lily and Tom for giving us a ride back home and for feeding us dinner - they sure made things much easier for us this evening.
For more pictures of today's trip to Meizhou and some from yesterday out to the countryside, go to this link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090425&id=36105183&l=16a3e6f9e5 or click on the "Facebook Album 6" link on the right side of the page.
Also, our internet is working again so I'm posting this from my room.
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