News from the Orient

Hello all. Sorry I haven't written in awhile. I've been busy and nothing super interesting has happened. I have gone to class and it has gotten colder everyday. It just seems colder here because there are no heaters here. There are no heaters allowed South of the Yangtze River. So it's the same temperature (like 50 degrees) all the time. Plus our hot water heater is the worst ever, so our shower is luke warm at best too.
On Wednesday I went on another trip with my swimming grandpa. This time it was just me, him, and 2 other younger guys who are also on the winter swimming organizing committee. I think they are just bringing me along to show me different parts of China and to show me off. But that's fun, it was pretty fun. We went to Leshan this time (where the Big Buddha is) to meet exclusively with the team there. We met at an outdoor tea house on the river that was right across from the big Buddha. Then we had lunch and I had to drink bai jiu this time, which was not fun. Then we walked out on the sand bar in the river to look at the Buddha, which was a cool new perspective. Then we drove to this hotel and went swimming in their semi-heated pool. I don't really know why, but that was fine. Then we went to dinner. They drank again, but I didn't have to this time. Since I already did once, I am going to try to milk that for as long as I can and not have to drink ever again. We'll see though, I don't want to offend anyone. Then we went to an indoor tea house with pool tables and mahjong tables set up and talked for a little while longer. Then we went home. They insisted on driving me up TO THE DOOR of my house. They wanted to pick up my bike at school first too, but I told them that if they had to take me home they should just drop me off and I would take the bus to school.
The next day I decided to walk to school instead, which was actually really nice. That night there was a movie showing at the Bookworm. We watched "The Game of Their Lives" which was the first of a three part documentary about North Korea. This movie was about the 1966 World Cup team that made it to the quarter finals by beating Italy at a time when North Korea was not even recognized as a country yet. The movie interviewed all the players and followed their story through the World Cup and talked about what it meant for their country for them to be there. It was really good. These film makers were the first people allowed to film in North Korea since the cold war. They have another documentary out about two young girls who are training to be gymnasts for some sort of national competition or something. We are watching it on Monday followed by a discussion with the film makers. Their last documentary is about an American soldier who fought in the Korean War and then defected and has lived there for the past 50 years. It's going to be released this year at the Sundance Film Festival.
In other news, I finished my paper about Communism and ended up arguing that Communism in China is on its way out. Our teacher is pretty liberal and in favor of democracy, but I'm still waiting to see how it goes over. I compared China to the Soviet Union and China doesn't really like that for obvious reasons.