Goodness me o my it is just so godawful pleasant. I do rather hope my incapacity for teaching children can be overlooked so I can stay. Words fail to describe how nice it is right now. I mean, I did coin paradisical but at the time work seemed ok. Now that I'm hanging onto that by a thread the gorgeous temperatures and perfect humidity just... just... I can't say.

Tianjin is nice in the fall. I miss NY, Prospect Park, Union Square, you Gothamites are lucky this time of year. But I am luckier. Every day flawless. I mean other than the screaming kids showing me the soles of their shoes of course. But perhaps in a way that accentuates. I mean, of course it does. I'm very on edge, considering grad school, trying not to get fired in such a way as to activate the clause of my contract that says I have to pay them... but not sweating it. So much I haven't told ya, whadaya want, background or diary? Background, I have a job in Guangdon if I can end this one on good terms (read: get my boss to sign some official government contract release form) or Warsaw if I can't. So I'm not entirely freaked out but I could also see that little clause putting me in a Chinese prison if invoked... I've nary two yuan to rub together ATM. So scrimping food again. Tell you about that? Bad diarist, bad! But payday's Wednesday. And blessing and curse, a week holiday follows. Blessing I need the rest, curse holiday's are unpaid. Think I'll be alright though, dunno how much I'll have to explain to CLL to get him to let me float a month off our quarterly lease, I imagine he could. Don't know CLL? Bad audience, bad!

Dear diary. I had oatmeal for breakfast. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Nobody Cares What You Had For Breakfast Man! 'Cuz what I had for breakfast is just such a fascinating explosion of tangents I won't be able to hit them all. My old write or live conduindrum, you ain't payin for this entertainment I gotta go live soon. But before I do let me tell you about Chinese oatmeal. Or my relationship to oatmeal.

I eat it. It's boring. I put honey in it. Still boring. I thought it might be cheaper than PBJs. I did mention them, yes? I'm not going back there, you check. I will mention in passing that Chinese rye bread tastes not a whit like rye. Which is fine, strong rye does not tasty PBJs make. Why did I buy it you ask? O but that's old news, some time ago, loaves and loaves in fact and now we're talking oatmeal. It comes in a bag. Like the milk. I know I mentioned i that, even included a pic. Don't say I nevah gave ya nuthin. I'm thinking of writing up the economics of Asian life. But I'm busy investigating the breakfast aspects. It isn't too hard to eat on about $3 a day. The tap water is a horror so some of that has to go to the bottles. Which are taking over my kitchen again. When will I stop digressing? Bribes are always welcome... so, oatmeal. Claims to be organic. As a lover of carcinogens I should eat the occasional oatmeal, should I not? Damn the price, I need to flush out all the nicotine and refined sugar. Price is ok. Is anything in China organic? I did ask, is anything anything? Still no answer. And still no members. My oatmeal and I are shouting in the void.