The end of Soup Ass

Today was the end of Soup ass. Only me and Erica and maybe some rookie wrestlers who were at the restaurant after I weighed in at juniors understand what I mean. Soup ass is when my body can't differentiate between pee and poo and so it all just comes out as diarreah therefore giving me soup ass. On both occasions that I had soup ass there was also much puking involved.

Last night I took a train from Beijing to Jilin. I was happy to leave Beijing, if I hadn't of gotten sick i would have left sooner. It's a beautiful city in the night. When I was walking 2 nights ago and Tiannemen Square was lit up I felt quite peaceful. There were less people around than in the day and the crisp night air did us good. Yona, Shany(2girls from Israel) and I had spent the day at the Silk market bargaining with little aggressive chinese girls for presents. They weren't buying for Christmas as they're Jewish.

My last morning in Beijing Larissa (Swedish) and I woke up early and did Tai Chi in this Park behind The Forbidden City. I was surprised at how good of shape she was in. We ran quite a ways and more quickly than at a jogging pace. I think that Swedes are built strongly, that's my first impression of the girls for sure and that they really know how to appreciate nature. They are allowed to set up tents anywhere in their country, and to pick berries on anyones property as long as they don't cut down trees. I think that my next trip overseas may include Sweden it sounds lovely. We walked into the park and there was this group of maybe 80 women listening to chinese music on a boombox dancing around and doing arobics. It wasn't really tai chi but it was really fun and got our blood flowing.

Train Ticket Dillemas

So I bought my ticket it said that i left at 14:25 and arrived in Jilin at 7:30. I thought ok not bad, a 5 hour trip. OOPS. Nope, 21 hrs later I arrived in Jilin at 7:30 AM not PM silly me. I'm here to Visit Mark but I also realized while on the train that I had bought a ticket to Jilin City, Jilin Province not Changchun, Jilin province. So Today I'll hang out in Jilin City and then take a train later on to Changchun(2 hrs/10 yuan=2.5$CAD) and meet up with Mark.

While on the train I met a group of men and boys and asked them to teach me how to play chess. We had fun and could communicate with my english mandarin dictionnary with much effort. At 7:00 Am one of them woke me up and I felt like I was in a fairy tale. A Big and bright Fiery Orange sun was rising from behind a snowy mountain. Small half frozen streams were steaming and the snow covered trees looked spectacular. Here I am in the north, not too far from Mongolia, Russia and North Korea.

Today I think I'll see if I can rent some ice skates and skate on a frozen pond in a park.