not much new here, but...

so the days here are none too eventful, but i have some news to report.

first, the weather has warmed up considerably, from a cool 55 to a rather warm 75. still, one can not complain having come from texas, right? it's still feels so great to sleep with the windows open and let the evening air cool me off. but that brings me to my second thought...

leaving my windows open is great for sleeping, that is until 7am when the school bell rings to let everyone know they should be at PE. that's right, PE! one of the first mornings here i got up to look out and see exactly what was going on. to my surprise, it was 5th grade gym class, except these are 20-25 year old college students. a few times since i have watched these exercises and each time i laugh to myself. jumping jacks in unison, running in place while moving your arms in tight circles to your side. at times it looks more like practicing for a line dance competition. well, funny you should mention that. they have competitions for this stuff! not kidding. just last weekend there was one here in xining. can you believe this, not only are they suffering through elementary gym class again, but they have to do this stuff at competitions. okay, that's enough.

third, i bought myself a nice little chinese cell phone. it kind of cool, but i did buy the absolute cheapest one they had. but now i can walk around town and when someone calls i pull out my phone and look like a local white person. ah, i'll never blend in, especially not wearing sandals like i do.

anyway, your welcome for some useless news. but things will pick up soon. i will be traveling around soon. so get ready for pictures of really tall mountains and monks doing their thang.