I found myself with a free afternoon one weekend, and decided to go to Mao's Tomb. I still haven't went, so it felt like a good time to check out it. I caught the bus and was pissed to find out that Tiannamen Square was blocked off. Apparently they knew I was coming. Actually, March was the month of two very important meetings I was told. So when the politicians come out, they block off the Square, which includes Mao's tomb. Rather then waste an afternoon, I decided to do something else I wanted to do for awhile. I went to the Military Musuem. Gary had shown interest in making a day trip there with the group as an activity, but I'm sorry to say my faith has been waivered in him. And I thought it would be too hard to plan, and therefore wouldn't happen, so I went anyway. I didn't have any ID (on account of a lost wallet) but the guard gave me a ticket! I think it was free anyway though, I'm not sure. It was a very large museum, and one of the most well put together ones I've seen here. There was a vast amount of Chinese history, from the dynasties, during the Great Leap Forward to present. I was glad to be alone, as those are often places I feel rushed by others who glance at things quickly and move on, so I could go at my own pace now, and enjoyed myself.
That week was my last week of work. I didn't feel as though I could justify 3 months of shitty volunteering into 3 short days, and I was right. Although the tasks they held for me did have validity, I wasn't too enthused. Sticking decimal labels onto the spines of books isn't that great. But I did it anyway, just listening to music the entire time. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall by myself. Yuchan had family matters to deal with, Gary had things to do at his other workplace, and nobody knew where the hell Nancy was, who hadn't shown up once yet. Whoopee!
We had another CAD on Monday the following week. It was to a new neighborhood most of us had never been. We first stopped for lunch, where Andy and Jonathon joined us with some baijiu. It was a merry afternoon, and they were very sentimental about us leaving, wishing for us to remember that moment and try not to miss them when we were gone. I fail. I miss them already and I haven't even left yet! We walked (with a little stumble) to a tea house run by a friend of Jonathons. We drank some tea, chatted, and then watched a traditional tea ceremony. We walked through a hutong, exploring a bit until we arrived at a antique shop which turned out to be fucking expensive! 100 yuan for a tiny lock? Screw that! We explored a little more, checking out other shops with paintings, antiques and whatnot. We got seperated from everyone and went out own way, eventually going home.
It continued being a busy week. We were invited to play basketball with the Chongwenmen Government District Office. We all went to a school gym after work and warmed up a bit. It was the CWY guys against them. We put up a good fight, made some good sweat, but they beat us in the end. They were very sportsmen and took us all out to a kao ya (roast duck) dinner. They were very chatty and asked us questions about Canada, our Mandarin, and living here. They were a nice bunch of guys.
The next day, I left work early to go to Gary's workplace. It may have taken 3 months, but he finally planned a day for me to play games with kids. We went to an elementary school not far from his work place. I found it a bit frustrating, because I had to keep changing the plans I had made, because it would go from 2 hours to 1, and then I had to make it educational and teach them english or something, and then I had 2 groups instead of 1. But I improvised well. I taught the kids the numbers 1-10 in french, as I couldn't think of some new standardized english phrases they hadn't already heard a million times, and then I taught the next group the Canadian provinces. Forgive me, I forgot the territories. I played "steal the bacon" and the island game with them, both of which they loved. As a thank you after, Gary's supervisor gave me the last Olympic volunteer bracelets. Now I have all 5 olympic colors! Blue, red, green, yellow, black. A full set!
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