I've set up an inclosure of floor mats in my room with all the normal kitten accessories, that is to say blankets and water. For food I'm taking chicken (cooked, don't worry) and parsing it up small, but I'm only feeding it it my lap. The thing is obviously traumatized and greets every encounter with a hissing (no teeth or claws). Encouragingly, the hisses are increasingly vehement as it recovers strength. I don't know how long it was out in the world alone, but it's very, very dirty, and certainly hasn't eaten since being separated from it's mother.
This is a lucky cat. Last night was a windstorm strong enough to toss around our garbage cans, and this morning we had a torrential thunderstorm. Aside from the weather, the camp dogs would certainly have bitten it to death if they'd been off their chains. He found someone just in time.
Sadly for the cat I leave Yantai next week due to some recent developments. Thankfully though, it looks like Tom might be up to having it at his new place.
Events have been moving quickly in the camp. We were about half way through morning training on Thursday, when DMIL arrived, preceded slightly by Jimmy, and delivered some abrupt news. The premises must be vacated by the end of next week, not by the thirty-first, and the masters were leaving that very afternoon. This was a bit of a shocker for everyone, but especially for Tom who, not expecting to leave until the end of the month, hasn't secured a flat yet. For the all the shock value, though, things will be just fine. Daniel is extending plenty of support to ensure nobody's left hanging in a foreign country. As for myself, I'd settled my plans in a whirlwind of browsing only the day before.
Blow by blow link surfing accounts are hardly riveting, so I'll just cut straight to the results: I'm taking a train down to Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, in the sub-tropical portion of China. There I will conduct an "English Converstation Corner" two hours a night, Monday through Thursday, in exchange for room and board. How ridiculous is the Internet? Wednesday morning I didn't know Guangxi existed, and by the evening I already had connections! Check out http://www.couchsurfing.org/ and https://www.helpx.net/index.asp to see how it was arranged. I'll write on "why Yangshuo?" another time. At the moment I can't be bothered.
My first step in this journey is getting to either Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong, or Qingdao. From there a train can take me all the way to Guilin (70km from Yangshuo), 2487 km from Yantai, for a grand sum of 117 dollars. I had no idea travel was so cheap here, and that's the price for a soft sleeper cabin (the only kind of cabin I'll consider for a journey this length, especially at such a reasonable price). There's only one reason I haven't bought a ticket yet: although they're purchasable online, one needs a a delivery address in the city of departure.
In light of this I'm planning to spend a night or two somewhere in Qingdao. Charlie tells me Jinan is incredibly polluted and, seeing as how either city will suffice, I'd rather avoid it. I could stay in a hotel, or I could break some ground in couch-surfing. Currently I have four couch requests out, but in the event that I can't arrange anything I'll just get a hotel. I'd rather couch-surf, meet new people, see the city, and have someone to help me onto the correct train, but we will see. Actually, it occurs to me that I could probably ask Jimmy if he fancies a short trip to Qingdao. We're pretty good friends by now, and he has nothing to (obviously, since he just lost his job), so I imagine he could be persuaded to accompany me. It'd be no problem paying for him as well, since hotels near the train station average around twenty bucks a night. I think I'll bring it up with him. Stellar idea!
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