Hello everyone. I know it's been a long time since I've entered a log. My apologies. The last week of September was slightly busy and I got side-tracked during the first week of October.

The last days of September were anxious days leading up to the National Day on October 1. This year is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. So it was a big event. There was a huge parade on all the channels. It was broadcast live from Beijing. I hear that Fairchild TV in Vancouver even carried the parade on their channel. I was very impressed with the military part. I hear the soldiers practiced 10 months for this parade. Their marching was absolutely perfect.

On a more personal level, though, I stayed in Wuhu for the whole 7-day holiday. Travel in China can get very hectic during big holidays. It's not to say that I didn't have my share of things to do. A few days before National Day, the mayor of Wuhu invited foreign experts, foreign students, and other out-of-town dignitaries to a banquet. It was held at the best hotel in town, the Tia Shan Hotel. It's right behind my university. It was a very big occasion. The local news cameras were even there. Also, Wuhu just opened up a new pedestrian-only street. The street is called Zhong Shan Lu (it's named after Dr. Sun Yat-sen). It's a very nice place. Mind you, the tiles they put down are very slippery when it rains. I know because I got caught in a huge downpour when I was down there. I was absolutely soaked when I got back to my apartment. Brian had visitors and I could not hide the fact that I had been in the rain.

During the seven days, I mostly read a 500+ page novel to kill time. Also, because my email was finally up and running, I was in correspondance with a lot of you and trying to keep a good turn-around time on it all.

As for the students, most of them went back to their hometowns. A lot of them wanted to see their parents, especially since Mid-Autumn Festival was the week before. So it was pretty quiet on campus, but quiet time is sometimes what the doctor ordered.