Another week come and gone. Only here for 3 more weeks. Wow it's all passed by so fast. On one hand everything here feels very normal and regular to me. Get up, go to work, say hi to all the regulars, the security guards, the waitresses at the restaurants, my bus drivers, come home, have dinner, sleep. The Venetian doesn't feel like a hotel to me anymore, it's my apartment and a lot of people just happen to be walking through it all the time. On the other hand ... I'm in China. It's still weird sometimes to walk around and be amazed when you run into someone that isn't Chinese or Asian. People that are used to seeing me around just smile and say hi now, but every day without fail I still get the double look or just flat out stared at while I'm walking around. Anyway ... it will all be over soon.
So, nothing really exciting has happened in the past two weeks. Yes, I know I missed updating this blog last week on my day off. I finally found a basketball (albeit very overpriced for the quality) so I went out during the day to shoot around a bit at the court across the street. You would figure for such a massive hotel that there would be a basketball court somewhere in here. Anyway, it was great to shoot around for a few hours, but my day off is on a Tuesday so the court was empty. Anyone who would've been playing was at school. So I did my regular day off things: worked for a bit, did some grocery shopping, went for my random direction walk, then came home and took a nap. I got up and decided that I hadn't had enough basketball playing so I went back out at like 8:00pm and the place was completely packed. There was 2 games going on and like 4 teams waiting on the sides to play. It was nuts. I just walked in and sat on the side and watched because I didn't want to interrupt anything (not being able to speak chinese sucks right now) but then one of the guys came up to me and asked me if I wanted to play on his team. So after a week of shows and flipping, I ended up playing some pretty intense basketball for like 4 hours straight. I was having too much fun to realize how much pain I was actually inflicting on myself. When I got home I literally couldn't move and I had completely sweat through 2 shirts. I sucked it up and hid it pretty well, but the next 2 days of work were the hardest I've had yet. My legs were completely shot. I actually want to be out playing ball right now, but I know I can't do that to myself again right now. I definately need the day of recovery to get back to work tomorrow.
Other than basketball, nothing was really different last week. More groups that we know and hang out with are leaving so we've had more goodbye dinners and gatherings. Funny how close you can get to people in such a short time when you have to work and deal with them day in and day out.
So today is another day off. I've been asked a few times by people why I don't have pictures of sightseeing areas or anything big like that. Well I was out today for 3 hours on another one of my random walks and I realized ... I don't like being a tourist. Most people when they go away to somewhere new want to "take in the sights" ... meaning go to all the tourist attractions. The towers, the temples, the museums, etc. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that in my opinion, but I've realized that for me, that's not "taking in the sights" at all. I don't want to see countries through the eyes of some organization that's decided that these places are the way that people "should" experience their country. I want to walk through the streets and see how the people live without all the glitter and cover ups. I walk through the Venetian and the surrounding areas and just feel like I'm in a huge adult playground. They shuttle everyone here to give them this glamorous view of Macau but as you can see from the videos I've already posted, 10 minutes away from here are homes no bigger than my hotel room and run down shops. Maybe it's because of the way I've experienced and been exposed to different countries and cultures in the past that I feel this way. For those of you who don't know, every year while I was in my teens and bit past that I would spend 2 or 3 weeks with a group from my church and we would travel to some country in the world to do what you would consider humanitarian work. We would fund raise and go to build houses, or feed orphans ... something like that. This being the case I obviously wasn't staying in hotels and resorts when I went to visit these countries. I've slept on people's floors, in beds made of the hardest cushions every, I've even spent nights sleeping in dirt under the stars in the middle of a field. Now don't get me wrong, I'm so incredibly thankful for what I have here and I'm loving every minute of it, but I always find myself drawn to taking these long walks away from it all and just experiencing the country for what it really is and not what it's made up to be. When I end up visiting a tourist attraction it feels like I'm in a bubble; like I could've experienced most of the place through a video or on the internet or something. You're not going to see the temple I passed today in a video. It's not a tourist attraction. The monk I stood next to isn't going to be in any commercials advertising the Macau Cotai strip. The old ladies slowly making their way across the streets smiling at me while I made sure they were okay getting over curbs are definately not going to be on posters and postcards. It's just a totally different experience that pictures and words can't describe. Not because it's breathtakingly beautiful, but because it's so normal and everyday ... and yet ... not. Am I making any sense? I don't know. Either way, I don't have a lot of pictures of where I've been because they would all look the same really or they would be of broken buildings, or people on the street fixing cars ... but it's been a great day. I did get a few pictures of some Christmas stuff though. It's funny to see Christmas trees and reindeer decorations everywhere while I'm walking through the city in a tank top and shorts haha. Never thought Christmas time would feel so weird without snow.
Things are still going well, we're all looking forward to a good rest and vacation after all this work, but still going strong. Only 18 days of shows left! Wow. We still need to see the Cirque show and a few other things before we leave so I'll keep you posted on those happenings.
Guess that's all for now. If parts of this post seem like random ramblings or don't make sense I appologize. I'm sitting on the floor right now in the middle of the lobby and just letting my mind go and typing. I'm not re-reading or planning anything so I really don't know what just came out on this page haha.
Until next time.
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