Up, Up, Up, and....

So inflation has been on a steady rise in yunnan for about 5 years now. Every year there is a report that comes out saying that inflation is up 2.5%...which people never paid attention to because it really didnt effect the daily life of someone in kunming as Kunming has always been the most expensive city in all of Yunnan.
But that all changed this past week. in a week, every thing from restaurants to market places have raised all their prices 10-25%. I have heard tons of complaints from tons of people, but the fact of the matter is that it has been in the making for sometime now....I didnt see this coming, but i understand. This just has to do with the fact that they can do it down here because businesses know that they can get these prices...And they will.
Next topic...
So since we are so frustrated with the soccer organization that handles the soccer games, the "executives" of our soccer team have gotten together (including me even though i have tried to stay out of it, but apparently i am an executive) and we have decided to book a field every week at 4:00pm on Saturdays and just play against ourselves...we will do this for a month and see how it works out....if we get a constant flow of people coming every week, then we are going to add the Laos team and a good chinese team and book the pitch for four hours and try to start our own 4 team round robin for the summer. I am really excited about this because we are getting the good field.

Close Encounters....well, just encounter

So i love riding my bicycle.....I was out yesterday coming back from a luncheon. going down a hill when i can to a typical intersection...So in China they have red, yellow, and green lights...yup...but they also have countdowns from ten when the light is going to turn red or green...So i was going across the intersection when the countdown was at about 7....And when the countdown for the light hits about 4 everyone on bikes and scooters start to cross the road even though the light is still red....well, there was a woman about 50 feet in front of me who had come to a stop at the intersection and was looking to turn left....i see her and dont really think any thing of it because she was on her phone not even looking at the light....so i proceed to go around her...well she saw some scooters starting to go early (like always) and she turned right into me....Her scooter fell on my tires and she fell on the frame....that left me with the pavement....but dont worry, i jumped off of my bike and was able to catch myself with my face....jk,.i landed on my feet...so usually, if a foreigner is involved...it is the foreigners fault...luckily, the woman just got up asked if i was ok...then i asked if she was ok...then i picked up her scooter....and we went on our ways. So my back tire is not so round anymore and my left pedal is semi-broken...I have already taken my pedal to get fixed which it didnt work...and i am just going to live with the back tire...
So if you did not receive my last newsletter, it mentioned that i will be returning to the States in late September..
Over the past few months, we were supposed to be able to be in two soccer leagues....but the soccer organization has been pushing back the leagues by saying that they are doing some reorganization with in their management...Well, we finally figured out what has been really going on, they were buying every soccer field in Kunming to have a monopoly on them...well, now all of the field managers know that they are getting paid every weekend whether someone plays on the field or not. So nobody is taking care of the grass fields...most of them have turned to dirt and patchy grass..and they are never lined...So i have unofficially quit playing outdoor soccer unless we play at one particular field which is genuine astroturf...and alot of the other foreigners on the team are doing the same thing...This has happened in most of the big cities in China....When it happened in Shanghai, they just built their own new complex...70,000 sq meters complex....In beijing, a rich foreigner bought all the fields and made them start taking care of the fields.....The reason is that their are so many people in China, that there is always someone who is going to want to play rather than having a decent field to play on...

dry....dry....dry

I watch NBC nightly news and the today (about 24 hours after they show it on TV in the states). All they have been talking about is the storms and snow all over the states. And it looks like you guys are getting hit tremendously. So i has not rained in Kunming for about 3-4 months. There is dust everywhere and when i am out playing soccer, basketball, or rugby, it is just dry mouth and we have to take drink breaks just to get saliva in our mouth. Dust keeps kicking up with wind. We played soccer on a field the other day and the entire center of the field was almost like a sand trap. everytime you took a step in the center it was like getting a mouth full of chalk.