I do apologize, once again. You won't find this entry on Facebook. I hope you won't even seen it. This is a message in a bottle to my future self.

Future Weg. Your grandmother just died. You have only one grandparent left.

And it sucks. Remember the E-mail dad sent you? "Call me as soon as you get this.", more or less. That sentence has never preceded anything good, ever. Grandma was in the hospital, but there had been positive news and signs of recovery. Apparently not. But of course, you knew what had happened before you called. Anytime someone that old is in the hospital, statistically they don't leave.

I remember back in my psychology classes, learning about a disease called Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy (alright alright, you Googled how to spell it), or "Broken Heart Syndrome". Basically, the longer that a couple has been together, the shorter one spouse lives after the other dies. You guessed grandma would survive a year. You guessed wrong - it was about 2 months. Then again both were in their late 90s, so the stats were not on their side.

And here you are, on the other side of the world and you can't do a thing. Of course, what could you do if you were there? Right now you're thinking "This job isn't as good as the last one, you could easily just say to hell with it and come home". And right now if you were asked to do that, you'd do it. You're not sure what to do, just like the last time. And the time before that.

Three grandparents dying in less than a year, when you're not even around. This is a terrible thing to get used to.

Just a quick one today.

I don't have to go into work until 4:30 today, and as luck would have it I woke up not 5 minutes before the musical garbage truck swung by. I'm usually only available once or twice a week to throw away my trash, so I knew I had to jump on this opportunity. The neighbors shot me a grin when I ran across the street in pajamas and fuzzy slippers.

But I was awake anyway, so I thought today I'd go to Luzhou, the previously mentioned area located in an offshoot of the subway. I had said something about it at work, and I got a response akin to "Why would you want to go there? It's just another part of the city."


Well, they're right. Luzhou doesn't have much going for it, it's simply a residential area like Xinzhuang. But it's on the MRT, and I need to eventually go to every stop, so away I went. Before I go anywhere though, I always look online for one thing, anything, to travel to. It always seems more fun when you have a goal in mind. Today's was a brunch place called O2 (subscript 2). Which, for anyone who knows me well, they know I cannot resist a chemistry themed brunch place. I got the American breakfast for kicks, which, let me tell you, is most certainly not an American breakfast. (Seriously, when do we ever eat a salad and 3 french fries with breakfast?) But regardless, it was pretty damn delicious. I also am going to make the incredibly lofty claim that they had the best bacon I've ever had. Yes, I know the implications of what I am saying. But seriously - damn good bacon. I eagerly await all challengers to the bacon throne.







I walked around a bit before seeing a sign to the Luzhou Family Historic Site, apparently who the district was named after. I showed up and the guy told me it was $100 (a little over $3 US) to get in. I felt this was a bit much, and I guess he could tell by the look on my face. So then he asked if I was a student. I said yes and suddenly the price is $60 - still too much, but I didn't come all the way out here to do nothing. Seriously, student ID - it's amazing.

And honestly the place itself isn't that great. A typical old Chinese house with nothing really of note in it, except maybe the photo on the left. I also found a funny machine in it, so I guess I might as well post the video I made of that below. Actually, I have a ton of videos on my phone that I never post just because it's too much of a pain to upload them to Youtube and link them. Maybe a future blog post will be all my videos - some are so old they're from China.

So check Luzhou off the list. I'm almost done with my MRT exploration. All that's left is Nanshijiao, and both ends of the blue line. Hope to have those done within the month.