Well, there's some good news and some bad news. The good news is over the past few days I've had a lot of time to get a lot of things that needed to be done completed. The bad news is, of course, as I am wont to do, I didn't accomplish any of those things that I had to do (well really how much do I HAVE to do while I'm here? Answer: Not much).

This sore throat hasn't been too bad as far as pain goes. I don't know if it is they mystical Chinese herbal medicines that I'm taking or it just isn't that bad, but most of the time I feel fine. I do however feel the moral duty to keep from infecting my classmates, they paid money to be here and I would hate to be the cause of ruining some of their fun. So for these few days I've put myself on quarantine.

This means there has been a serious lack of exciting events in my life these past few days, and a serious spike in getting back in touch with people in America. It's also seen a major spike in rekindling old love affairs with pointless websites I once perused while in America.

Ironically enough there was one thing which I was going to post on today's blog that had some smidget of significance and wasn't mindless babble. Unfortunately during this long and rather boring introduction I have forgotten what it was I was going to say in the first place. Regardless, it wasn't that interesting. Seriously.

Well, seeing as there really is nothing interesting one can say when they have spent their entire day lying on their bed, I'll leave you with what I have written thus far.

I can't believe it has been a week since the last time I updated my blog.

There hasn't been a lot of new events that have transpired here. There have been some new developments, but perhaps it would be best not to post those on such a public forum as this?

This week I found a way through the Great Firewall of China so that I could watch Conference. Originally we were supposed to watch the sessions as a branch at our local meeting place, but the DVDs we received didn't work, so it seemed like we wouldn't be able to watch Conference until after we got back to America. After extensive looking I found a way to get to the Church website through a proxy server. It took hours to download just the audio of the proceedings, but I　felt it was important enough to be worth it.

While this week I have taken a lot of time out of class to do my homework and to go above and beyond the requirements in order to get the most out of my time here in China, I have also begun to wonder if the reason that I am here isn't most beneficial for it's capacity in intellectual progression, but for progression of my character.

I apologize if this reads a little, funny, but I've been spending the last few hours translating ancient Chinese to English for homework for one of my classes. Before that I spent a few hours writing an essay for my writing class.

Now I'm lying here in my hard bed with a hint of a sore throat and a touch of a cough, wondering what there is that I can write which would be of worth to read in America. Perhaps it would be best to just leave what I have written and sleep for the time being. I will be posting more often from hence.

The weekend was so short. Actually I didn't get a weekend this week, and I'm a bit tired.

I got to go to church today, which was nice, because I don't always get to go here. When we're traveling there isn't anywhere to attend, and next week is the week we are observing as General Conference, so by the time the first of November rolls around I will have been in Nanjing for 2 months, and only have attended church 3 times. It makes each time when I do get to go to church that much better.

After church we had class with our BYU professor. He took us on a short tour of a few sites in Nanjing. All in all we were supposed to tour three sites, but because the bus driver was 35 minutes late picking us up, the trip was poorly planned, and everyone was already tired from having 7 hours of make-up classes on Saturday, we cut the field trip short at 4 hours. Eeek. Sundays are much better when you can take a Sunday nap.

After I got home I sorted through a few more of my pictures from before, and then I got to my homework. We were supposed to hand write a 300 character essay for tomorrow mornings class. Most students don't get past about 100 characters, I'm guessing because they're just being lazy, but today I decided to go above and beyond, because lets face it, what else do I have to do while I'm here besides learn Chinese? So I wrote an 800 character essay to turn in tomorrow. I figure the more I write the more mistakes I'll make and the more I'll learn.

Before I sign off for the night and get some sleep, there are two stories from today.

One was while we were out touring with the class. Some lady approached me and asked in English if I could take her picture for her. I said yes in Chinese and she was shocked, just like everyone else and their dog that I spoke Chinese. She gets to talking with me and offers to be my language study partner, a quite popular way to make friends here. They help you with Chinese, you help them with English - a symbiotic friendship. Only I could tell she wasn't really interested in learning English from me if you know what I mean. I pulled a classmate over (female) fast and said I didn't need a language partner, but this girl was looking for one. Then I got out of there. Too many experiences like that lead me to think that it isn't possible for me to make friends with any females here, but I'm fine with that.

Second story. I received a marraige... proposition... today. Well, I guess I can't really tell this story online, you never know who's reading, right? Spiked your interest haven't I? Ask me on MSN or Gmail chat and I'll explain more.

Bonus pic of the day:

It has been a few days since my last post. It isn't my fault. I swear.

The Chinese government has cracked down on its internet censorship recently, and I haven't been able to access Blogger. Now it's all better.

Not only can I access this website again, I can upload pictures (finally)! Now my blog won't be so boring.

I don't think that I can really make up for the days when I wasn't able to post, so here's the Reader's Digest.

I am still going to school, and nothing really fun is happening right now.

I go to the underground fake markets every now and then to add to my fake brand name collection, still haven't found any of the brands that Courtney wants though.

We don't get a weekend this weekend. We had class on Friday and today, and tomorrow after church we have class again. It's a blast.

On the plus side I have noticed that my Chinese has made marked improvements since arriving just over a month ago. I'm hoping that I will continue to improve at a faster rate until I return home, and I'm bringing a lot of movies and books to continue my improvement at home.

I'm gradually sorting through my pictures from the trip and finding those that I want to keep and those I want to delete. I still have around 2000 that I haven't sorted through, and I find I keep around 25% of the pictures I've taken. After I sort through them all I have to fix the coloring and white balance on Photoshop, so I still have a lot of work to do.

So I guess that's about it- I'm keeping really busy, I'm getting used to life here, and my English is getting worse. Life should slow down a bit now too, the first month was full of traveling and vacations, from here on out there isn't much of that. Now is a time to buckle down, study hard, and get things done. At least I know I won't be like other students who came here with me who now are skipping class so that they can stay home and play World of Warcraft.

Here's a bonus:

Unfortunately there was no post last night. Yesterday was a good day, but nothing of particular note.

In the morning we went shopping, I got some Iceberg brand jeans for $10 USD at the underground mall here, and then we went to Yangshuo. We walked around for a little while, nothing really of note. After getting back to Guilin and having dinner with the family we went to their grandmother and grandfathers house and I showed my roommates how to play Majhong. We played for a few hours with the aunts and uncles and went home. Nothing too special.

Today however... today I felt like MacGyver.

We took an early bus up to Yangshuo and rented bikes. The lady we rented our bikes from didn't seem too honest, so I played it safe. When she asked for a deposit I refused, so she asked for our passports as collateral. I refused, and offered a drivers license instead. She said that would be OK, so I gave her my BYU ID. She said it didn't look like a drivers license. I told here that not many people live in my state. I was right not to trust this lady though. After riding about a mile the pedal to my bike fell off. Awesome. I'm out in the middle of some rice fields and bamboo fields and now I only have one pedal. At first I walked along a rice field until I found some string, and did a pretty good job about tying the pedal back on, unfortunately after around half a mile the pedal fell off again. This time I decided to use what my parents taught me as a child (through Macgyver)- the world is full of solutions to your problems if you think creatively.

So I took some bamboo shoots and put them through the hole in the pedal and over the crank which it was supposed to screw onto. I then just took a rock and hammered it on there. The bamboo shoots held the pedal on pretty well for most of the day after that, although we had to stop to replace the bamboo shoots with some poker cards we found on the ground. It wasn't a problem.

While randomly riding through the countryside and rice fields we came to a mountain we decided to hike up, and found a cave inside. Unfortunately there was a sign outside saying it was closed to any visitors because it was too dangerous. Fortunately I value my life enough to obey signs like that.

After riding on we made our way to a small fishing village on the shores of the Lijiang river called Mu Shan Cun, or Tree Mountain village. We went to the shoreline and saw a few other white people in the water and getting ripped off in fares for riding small bamboo rafts on the river. While taking pictures, I noticed that just up the river there was a rope bridge. I wanted to go. So my roommate and I started walking up the river bank. After getting a few hundred feet up the river we found a small, half buried bamboo boat that was falling apart. What did we do? We pulled it up out of the ground, but lacking a bamboo shaft to navigate the craft with, I hiked up into the bamboo forest and knocked down a large bamboo plant, then using sharpened rocks we shaved the branches off.

Then I took the boat out onto the river. The locals all thought that it was hilarious. My boat was falling apart so it was hard to stand on without falling over. Plus, how often have they ever seen a white person floating up a river on a bamboo boat?

Within half an hour a crowd from the village had gathered to watch me try to maneuver my small boat over the other side of the river and back. Tour boats stopped nearby so that the passengers could take pictures of me. A few boats even came from downstream back to my spot and when they pulled up close I heard the crew say, "They weren't lying, there really is a white person on a bamboo boat here!"

By the time I made it back to shore I was exhausted.

We rode our bikes back to Yangshuo and I took my bike back to the rental place. They looked at it and asked what I had done. I explained that the pedal had fallen off because it was missing a screw. She said, "There were lots of bike shops, you could have had it repaired at any of them." Yeah right. The scam that they pull here is renting out bikes with loose screws etc that will break after you are a certain distance from the shop. Once broken down the repairmen charge ridiculous prices to fix the bike, then they contact the rental owner who takes part of your deposit on grounds that you mishandled their bike. In reality as soon as you leave they loosen the screw again and rent it to someone else.

The lady told me that she would keep my ID if I didn't pay for the bike to be fixed. I told her all she had to do was put a screw in it and it would be fine, that I knew the scam she was trying to pull, and I didn't care if she kept my ID because it was a school ID anyways and was of no value to her and little value to me. Once she realized I was onto her she gave me back my ID and we left.

After getting back to Guilin we went out to eat at a Tuccano's-type Brazilian Grill. It wasn't bad. The best part was the selection of meats. Besides the normal that you're used to in America, there were also the average Chinese meats - chicken heart, cow stomach, pig intestine, etc. Then there were the specialty meats. Tonight the special was meats from the horse family so we sampled horse, donkey, mule, and camel. Yep.

Got home and packed. I've got to leave Guilin tomorrow, back to Nanjing. It's been a fun bout, but I'm excited to go back to my own home to have a more settled schedule. My main goal when I get back though is to look for a shop that sells guitars. I found a guitar shop here in Guilin, they were selling a really really really nice Yamaha guitar for 600 RMB, only about $85 USD. Of course I'd have to play it first, but that's a steal! I think that when I get to Nanjing though I'll just find a guitar shop and go in a play when I'd like. No need to buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right?

I'm trying not to fall asleep while I'm writing this, so if it is different or more odd than other posts, bear with me.

This morning after waking up and getting ready, the whole extended family drove out to see one of the great wonders of the ancient world that no one has ever heard of. It is a canal system that was built by Qin Shi Huang Di, the same emperor whose tomb and palace look alike I visited in Xi'an. The same emperor who had the Terra Cotta Warriors buried to protect him in the after life in 200 BC.

While he was working to conquer all of China he needed a way to transport his troops from place to place, but going over rivers and through mountains took too long. Instead he built giant canal systems in the north to transport his troops on. When he started conquering people to the south the rivers didn't all connect. To solve the problem he had a canal built between the Yangtze River and the Lijiang River so that he could travel all the way to the furthest places in the south of China. Hence the saying around here is: In the north there is the Great Wall, in the south there is the Lijiang Diversion, meaning that this canal system is every bit as great as the Great Wall, especially since it has been in use ever since Qin Shi Huang Di finished building it in 200 BC.

After walking around, taking pictures, and having fun, we went out to lunch at a hotpot restaurant. We ate for over an hour before we drove back home.

Tonight was a special treat. We went to a Chinese Medicine Hospital and had our feet and legs washed with tea and other... stuff... and then got full body massages. It is because of that that I am trying to stay awake as I type this. It really felt good, but it made me really tired. I think I'll be feeling great in the morning, and it's off for another day of playing.

Another day which left me too exhausted to post anything last night before crashing. There was a lot though, I know that this is going to be a very long post.

The first thing that happened in the morning was something that promised to be a great experience. My roommates future in laws had told their two brothers that I liked photography. They also like photography and arranged for me to go with them to a car show with a press pass, or photographer pass or something so that we could take pictures of the cars. They were especially clear and told me repeatedly that we were going to take pictures of the car models.

Unfortunately I woke up with a stomach ache from all the hot peppers I ate last night, and I was exhausted, because we didn't get home until around 2 AM and had to get up by 7:30 AM. We went to the car show, unfortunately because it was the last day there were only a few models, so after taking pictures there we walked to a local park/zoo and walked around for a while. It didn't take long before my roommate and I were tired and wanted to go home. We spent the afternoon inside sleeping and watching a movie.

Tonight was a special night though, the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, held in the exact middle of the lunar year, on the day when the moon is biggest and brightest. The Chinese have many traditions surrounding this holiday.

The traditional story is: A long time ago, there were ten suns that circled the Earth. The Earth was too hot, and so the Emperor commissioned the best archer, a banished immortal named Houyi, to shoot down nine of the suns. When he was successful the Emperor rewarded him with a pill that would allow him to return to the heavens and live with the gods. Houyi hid the pill in his home and began to prepare himself to take the pill. One day while cleaning, his wife Chang'e discovered the pill and took it. When Houyi returned home she ran from him and flew into the heavens. Houyi chased her, but was never willing to shoot her with his arrow to force her to stop. He returned to Earth, and she stopped at the moon. There she made a palace for herself. Eventually Houyi made a palace for himself on the sun, and once a year, when the moon is closest to the Earth Houyi visits his wife on the moon, that is why on that day it is so full and so bright.

The Chinese say that on this day when the moon is full (in Chinese you say that it is 'full, round, and complete') families get together full, round, and complete. They always eat. So we went out to dinner with the entire extended family, and it was delicious.

Another thing that families do is exchange moon cakes. These round cakes are mean to symbolize the fullness and completeness of the relationship between people and the roundness of the moon. Of course we had some moon cakes.

Then the family wanted me to go out and take pictures of the moon, so I went with the two uncles around the city and took pictures of the moon.

The best part of the night had to be the sky lanterns though. These sky lanterns are like little paper hot air balloons. They are very light and in the middle there is a little block that you light on fire, then they fly up into the sky. When you release the lantern you make a wish, if the lantern flies into the sky the wish will come true, if the lantern falls from the sky than your wish will not come true.

We got lanterns and all released them. It was a fun night.