Chapter 363

362 down, 3 to go. I took the dog out in the cold, rode to work and taught my grade-12 classes. A video made the rounds of the WeChat shitposting groups I’m a member of, an English-speaking foreign resident of the city of Xi’An was filmed going on a profane rant after being told to wait in the snow for hours for a Covid test. The plot thickened later, as the video was wiped off the Chinese internet because it shines a light on the incompetence of the health officials there, and also because of some angry Chinese guy hurling racial abuse at him, notably calling him a “white-skinned pig”. Still, the guy is heard yelling “Fuck China” and other vociferations, gotta be careful with that.

I made ribs in the oven and spaghetti for lunch, it was awesome, and I rubbed my belly in satisfaction. Then I went back to school, taught Catatonic Class and Crazy Class, and hung out in the office in between.

The Italian blue belt sent us a message, he injured his back and can’t go to BJJ training. The other blue belt, and the new guy are also busy. I was a bit bummed out, but could definitely take a day off, the DOMS from the deadlift workout compounded with the long bike ride were taking their toll. So I played a bunch of online chess games and watched chess instructionals to suck less at the game.

The girlfriend arrived home late, and we took the dog out. She told me a story, how she saw an old man in the underground parking lot doing something “almost wenming (civilized)” by picking up his dog’s poop with a paper towel, but instead of dropping it in a garbage can, he left the paper-wrapped turd at the edge of the wall. I used to draw a webcomic that got a moderate following among expats in China, and made one about this exact scenario many years ago, based on a true story.

We went to measure (or, as she says with her endearing imperfect English, measuralize) the dimensions of our board in the car to order some padded mattresses. The whole project is going to be completed soon, I’m looking forward to tour China with it!