It's the year of the Dragon.

Right now I am sitting in my bedroom at the baby blue and white desk that was placed here by one of my predecessors. Looking out of the window is a little difficult at the moment due to the grime that has accumulated from the terrible air quality of Jinzhou. What I do see though is a man with a broom that looks to be made of limbs of a bush and he is sweeping the grass. He is piling up all of the dog waste, firework casings, random garbage, and of course dead grass onto the sidewalk then preceding to light it on fire. This is why I pay 39 yuan a month for "property management". Seeing this has made me wonder of all of the other things that I encounter daily that I have just written off as.... well, normal. Of course I didnt always think of the lifestyle here as normal but after being here for a year and 4 months, it just becomes that way. I can go to the run of the mill corner store outside my building and buy a bag of chicken feet if I were so inclined. (they actually aren't so bad if cooked well) A couple of shops down, you can buy processed and packaged dog meat. That, I haven't tried, for a few reasons. The first reason should be pretty obvious but second is because I've heard from a few people that dog is actually delicious. I don't want to become a dog addict. Another thing that I've just thought of that I have become totally desensitized to is something we all wish we could do without consequence...... yep,I'm talking about public defecation. It's mostly youngsters engaging in this act of public ploppy time but on occasion you will see the adult that just couldn't quite make it to the squatter. In case you are wondering (and im sure you are), no, I haven't applied the concept of "when in Rome" as far as matters of rear evacuation are concerned. But hell, pee wherever you want! Those are just a few of the goins ons that I encounter on the regular here in the PRC, and ya know what? I dig it. We recently went through my second Chinese New Year. It is now the year of the dragon. It was pretty similar to last year. Same stage, different cast. On thing we made sure to do right this year was the fireworks. My friend Tim and I headed up that mission (more Tim than me). It wasn't hard to acquire boom booms due to them literally being on every street corner in the city. Well had no reservations on spending what needed to be spent to fulfill our need to blow shit up. Tim bought a box of which the size would normally be used to move apartments but in this case it was one huge system of fireworks that needed to be lit by 2 people simultaneously. I was very proud of him on this purchase. Of course this monster would be reserved for our grand finale. The other works we bought would by American standards would cost you an arm and a leg and cause for a massively wide birth when setting off, but here, they are pretty damn cheap you can basically put theme wherever you wish. We did actually got asked to take the big box away from the apartment buildings due to its size which made us all the more giddy. Good times were had even though it was incredibly cold outside (beer freezing cold) and by the time we were ready to set off the big box, our camera batteries had succumbed to the cold and died. The fireworks in the city lasted for over a week and began at 7 in the morning. Poor Cooper is not a fan of Chinese New Year. I cant imagine how loud everything must be for him. taking him for a walk last week was a gamble because you never knew when someone was going to be setting off their stockpile of fireworks. I tell ya, there were some sounds comming out of him that I've never heard before. I think he actually liked the visual aspect of the whole festival because he would look into the sky and watch the explosions, its just his sensitive ears couldn't handle the rest of it. There were a few times where he would be watching through the windows with my hands over his ears and his head would tilt as if he was actually enjoying what was going on outside. That didn't last very long though, he'd soon continue barking at the booms. We are both glad that it's over for this year. Time to wash the windows.