It's Always Great to Meet Your Fans.

Last Tuesday, I got a chance to meet some of our blogs most loyal fans. It is weird to meet somebody who knows a lot about you and you don’t know that much about them. Anyway, meeting the Golze family was fun. Golze, Joy, and I all meet them at this museum right on the edge of Xi Hu. The museum had a lot of old stuff from different periods of time in Chinese history. So it was basically your typical museum. The part of the museum that I found most interesting were these old paints of monks, but the paints looked more like cartoons. To be more specific the paints looked a lot like the cartoons figures in this children’s book that we were forced to read in Beijing called San Mao. Other than the these cartoons, I thought the museum was not that interesting, probably because I really didn’t understand what I was looking at, maybe should have read the signs or something. But who reads the signs when they go to a museum. After the museum we walked up a hill near by to get a better view of the lake. But all that we could really see were tree branches; I guess we chose the wrong the hill.

After spending some time on the hill chatting we walked down to the restaurant. The restaurant was damn good. Golze, chose one of the best restaurants that Hangzhou has offer. If any you ever go there, I suggest you try the fish. It was great going to this restaurant, because I was getting tired of eating at the cheap restaurants around the school. What made this experience even better was that I didn’t have to pay. Thanks again Golze family.

When dinner was finished we all went to a street called He Fang Jie, it is an old school Chinese style street, where you can buy Hangzhou’s specialty stuff and so ancient looking stuff too. He is an example of some the specialty stuff the street has to offer:



This guy was nasty with his hammer chisel combo. He had beat out all types of designs on plates. I think my favorite one he had was of this dragon. But the best part of the street is the guys doing tricks pouring tea. They are like Harlem Globe Trotters with teapots. They were doing all kinds of tricks like behind the back tea pouring, spinning the teapot on one finger, over the shoulder tea pours, and even hitting the teapots with no look pours. It was probably the best Chinese trick pouring I have ever seen and the only Chinese trick pouring I have ever seen. Here is a picture:



This guy is doing the under the arm poor. Can you do that? I think not. I know Golze taught you his favorite Chinese word, and this is a time that you can definitely say this guy is Li Hai or his skills are Li Hai. Because we went to He Fang Jie at night, certain parts of the street were light up with these crazy lights:



The lights gave the place more of that old school Chinese feel. I need to get one of those for my room next year. So when I bring back my Chinese maid she can feel at home. Oh, yeah I am going to hire a Chinese maid for my room next year, I mean I have to take advantage of the cheap labor here. I mean that is why I came to China. After He Fang Jie, we took Golze’s family back to the hotel, where they gave us a lifetime supply of hand sanitizer, which I was so grateful for because your hands can never be too clean in China. Then came the best part of the trip the crowded bus ride back to school, I swear there were like 200 people on this bus, we barely were able to fit in. My face was pushed against Joy’s. It was a little tight.

Today, I went to play Golze in that stick bird Chinese game, which I found out has an English name called shuttlecock. But recently when we went to go play some class was going on, and recently every time we go to play there has been so class going on. I think Golze chooses these times because he is scared to play me. He knows last time was a fluke. Hey, Golze why don’t you be a man and stuff ducking me? I promise the butt kicking I am going to give you won’t hurt that bad.

Hey, to anybody who true loves me and wants to give me a package of some sort, for example, like my family, who has not even called me once since I have been in China. Ah, Am I still your son? What the flip is going on here? But anyway my mailing address is:

Durrell Mack
Middlebury College School In China
Center for International Programs
Zhejiang University of Technology
Number 6, Zhaohui District
Hangzhou 310032 CHINA

I thought I would end this blog on a happy note and with some pictures. Here are some pictures that have to do with previous blogs:



This is me feeling the effects of the La Duzi. I really look like one of those messed up vampires from Blade 2. China actually might be the best diet, I have ever been on, even if I didn’t want to lose weight.



The stuff that is not the crawfish is these spicy, hot ass peppers. The crawfish especially red because of the hot stuff on it. That crawfish actually died from drinking too much hot sauce.



This is me about to die from eating the crawfish that ate too much hot sauce. Also the massive of amounts of beer that I consumed during the eating process might have contributed to me looking like that. Hey, that shit was hot.