here in chongqing province it can get pretty foggy, with most cities located in valleys surrounded by mountains. for a place so inland it can get a fair amount of moisture, remnants of wet south asian weather patterns making its way across eurasia. the fog is pretty incredible. in boston, being by the coastline and with a relatively flat terrain, we hardly ever see any fog. here in changshou, the fog only lasts until the morning; by noontime the sky is clear again, or at least a hazy overcast.

funny, even working 6 days a week, a week can still go by pretty fast, especially if you're busy with work. it's a weird kind of busy. yes, i have a deadline, but i don't feel particularly rushed. i work when i want to, space out when i don't, sort of easy. and in another week, i get another paycheck. makes me wonder if i can actually stay here until my contract finishes and then go home, probably sometime mid-summer 2014. early summer in chongqing must be nice, weather not so hot that people are cowering from the hazy sun, but still warm enough that all the pretty ladies reappear i imagine.

after work i went running. this was the first time where all the treadmill machines were occupied and nobody was working the strength training machines. i waited about 10 minutes, doing a triple set on the lat pulldown bar (rocking 70lbs). one of the trainers asked me if i was interested in a spin cycling class, which runs for about 45 minutes. in a darkened room i saw half a dozen men and women peddling on stationary bikes. class hadn't started yet, a few were just sitting there playing with their phones. it looked interesting, but i didn't have the time commitment. maybe next time, but tonight i just want to do my 20 minutes of 4000m and then go home. i also feel you don't lose enough calories on a bike, no matter how fast you go, compared to actual running, which is more physically demanding.

my wait would've been quicker but just as i turned around, a pretty girl grabbed a free treadmill so i ended up waiting a bit longer. in china, it's a total "you sleep you weep" kind of country. she was only doing a walk, occasionally talking on her cellphone, probably waiting for a class because she disappeared a short time later. waiting around gave me a chance to check out the performance of these runners. the average running speed was 6km/h (which is more like a quick walk), with the fastest person running 9km/h. my speed? 11km/h, 4000m in 22 minutes. i was slightly tired but kept up with my 11km/h pace. i was also by the side of the wall next to the mirror, so i could see my own stride which gave me additional motivation. one trick i learned is to not look at the clock, because time has a way of slowly down the more i struggle. i continued watching the first half of a JFK documentary, got to the part where he marries jackie kennedy. there is sound on these floating HDTV's but it's drowned out by the treadmill noises. i have to search for subtitle files if i want to watch anything at the gym (the JFK documentary was an mkv file with english subtitles embedded).