Perfect afternoon

Yesterday was one of those perfect afternoons. After taking my first exam (got an 88) I decided that I was going to go to Houhai area and walk around the lake that some friends and I had seen or a prior visit. As this lake is big and we were hungry on the first vistit we didn't investigate, but I made a mental note to come back and check it out.

Weather was great. Sunny and really hot but who cares the sunny was shining and the sky was blue. Far cry from the grey we are used to. Before I headed out I went back to my room to pick up my travel guitar. Figured I practice and play the only song I know; Till the Sun Turns Black by Ray LaMontagne. Yes, I know how to play it. Shut up. Took the subway to the stop and got out and.......had to pee!!! Now eople have warned me about the public toilets in Beijing and China in general. All have said that they are a disgusting affair with shit and shinola all over the place. They've said to watch your step and don't touch anything. They've said to hold your nose because the place smells like ass on the hottest day in hell (LMAO, I love saying that something smells like ass. I get a kick out of it every time I write it, LOL) and if you have to shit then God help you because the toilets in the public toilets are squat toilets. Fortunately, I only had to pee. I walked into the place expected the worse and was sorely disappointed. The place was incredibly clean with new fixtures and gleaming white porcelin (that word I can't spell again and too lazy to look ulp) tile walls. No odor of shit to assault my nose at all. Frankly, I was ready to have this disgusting experience to write about in a future blog and it was completely denied me. Damn Olympic preparations. Peed and went about my business, the end.

The lake. A what looks like recently added concrete tile walkway rings the lake with built in benches. It's lined with trees and in some sections there's a copious number of bars with sofas outside for your seating pleasure. There are some restaurants but more bars than anything. The bars are quaint without being overdone. You'd feel really comfortable stopping having a beer or two or three and wasting away the afternoon. The place is full of locals swimming, take the rental boats out, working out in the public parks, doing tai chi and just going about their daily lives. If I had had on my boxers I would have jumped in the lake with the locals but unfortunately I had on the tighty whiteys. I don't think they would have been ready for that. I had enough stares already and didn't need them staring at my butt too. There are guys in san lun che (three wheeled passenger pedal bikes) ready and willing to give tours of the surround Huotongs for a fee that's is always negotiable. Local vendors seeing some jade, bracelets, tiny kites etc... Not an overwhelming number of these vendors either expect the three wheeled bike buys. A really nice local place where there are folks fishing, sleeping and just living their lives. I walk in with my guitar on my back and the stares begin.

Okay as an aside. For real this staring thing is getting really crazy. It is so incredibly bizarre to me all the stares. I'm apologize for going on about it so much but it is a constant unrelenting thing. It's the double and triple take stare. It's the stop right in front of you and stare stare. It's the I'm not reallylooking at you but really am stare. It's the quick look as you walk by that then the turn around stop and stare stare. It's the saying to your friends "look at him" out the corner of your mouth to get your friends attention stare, it's the grab your sons head and whip it around when he's looking in the wrong direction stare. It's the whole bus is looking at you when you get on stare, it's the did anyone see me as I hit my head getting out of the subway car on three ocassions, oh yes they did because he's so tall and they are laughing stare. It's the chuzuche (taxi) almost getting into an accident because he's staring stare. It is in a word absolutely frakking crazy and I'm loving it. I start to dance with my headphones on. I'm looking people right in there faces and going Ni Hao (hello) catching them off guard. When they talking chinese to there friends about me I say "Dui dui dui, Wo hen da" (yes yes yes I very big) catching them off guard that 1. I know that are talking about me and 2. that I know chinese. What!? BDK. So much fun. Scott Kollar warned me but I didn't believe him.

So I walk into all these at the lake. Excerbated by the fact that it's really hot and I'm sweating like a whore in a church's sauna so I take my shirt off showing all my tattoos. I tell you I wish i had had on boxers I would have gone swimming. The walk is leisurely, stopping to practice a little chinese with folks along the way. I'm Ni Hao-ing all over the place and generally just having a really good time. After an hour or so I find a shaded section and break out the guitar and just start practicing my finger picking and strumming and my one song. People actually stop to listen as they walk by and some of the people in the pedal boats float nearby to either stare or listen. I haven't figured out which yet. I'm playing for about an hour or so and having a great time. I might be a half way decent guitarist when I make it back to the states. (Yeah right.)

I ended the stroll by buying some trickets from one of the vendors for next to nothing. My skills at negotiation are getting better each day or so I think.

That was my afternoon until around 630pm. Leisurely hanging with the locals and practicing guitar at Houhai lake. I think I'll definitely go back soon. My friend Jen's mom is coming in town this Sunday for 3 months or so and I think she'll enjoy the place as well. Need to get here there before all the Olympic tourists decend on it. It's going to be a made house.

Oh, I didn't bring my camera with me so there are not pictures, not that you could see them anyway. Next time I go I'll bring the camera.

Hope you all have your own perfect afternoons as well. - Wil