China summer heat

The humidity here has been nearly unbearable, and with the pollution, it creates an atmosphere that troubles me greatly. After I got back from Vietnam I had some sort of sickness that made me feel feverish and wobbly and weak, with a big headache. I was concerned about maybe Malaria, but apparently that is a recurring fever, not a one time deal. So I think it was, is, the pollution here. You walk around, or run around, and it hits you hard. And I played frisbee right after I got back, so it was a big hit on my weak lungs. I am amazed that the pollution would be enough to make me sick for more than a week, just from running around and breathing for 2 hours in it.
But fear not! I have developed my smoker's lungs again, so I am getting tougher to the bad air. The humidity is something I haven't had to deal with so much before. It feels like its much hotter than it really is, and you can't do anything about it. I run around and get very wet with sweat, but don't get any cooler because of the sweat. I just get hotter and hotter and eventually feel like I need to lie down or I will fall down. What great air!
In Mexico, and in Costa Rica, the humidity was high, and also in Vietnam, but I guess all those times I was near the ocean, so the temperature was a little less or something. It was more bearable. The last two weeks there were thunderstorms nearly every night, but I think that might be lessening now, at least its been "clear" for 4 days now.
Last saturday, Maria's grandmother died. She got the call in the morning and decided she wanted to get out of town for a night, so we went up to the Great Wall again. I'm really glad we went up there, and it was beautiful, but I'm sorry about her grandma. Its been a while since I've had any grandparents, but they are sure nice to have. The farmland up there had changed quite a bit since the last time we saw it, and giant corn plants were everywhere!
We watched the sun set and made a nice little fire and cooked sausages, and listened to a chinese guy (who had come up with his son) tell us not to make fires or watch the sun set and come back in the dark, since it is dangerous. But alas. Danger is my middle name!
So it was a nice night up there, and then when we got back to town on Sunday, Maria had to get ready to go to Xian, where she is for a week.
For some reason the China internet filter seems to be leaking now, and I can get to this blog. I hope it works and I can post this and maybe I will continue to post more here, but who knows. Internet here is such a mystery.
I don't know what the first plant is, so if you know, let me know! And the others are tiger lily(I think) and a grass.
This trip is starting to wind itself down now. I've made a few friends here, and it has been really nice to visit Maria. I am looking forward to getting back to the boat, however. I miss the water. After Vietnam, the need to be swimming is twinging along my spine and I can feel the withdrawal symptoms. I also need to shoot some fish. I've been having dreams about spearfishing over the summer.
I'm eager to get back to learning Spanish again. For whatever reason, Chinese hasn't attracted me, but I do want to practice my Spanish. And I want to build things. I can't do any building in China, because there isn't any parts or hardware stores that sell things that are any good. Everything is crap, and you can't even find wood or rope or metal to make things out of, so it is frustrating to try. But I am eager to get my hands on my roller-furling and work on it, and to work on my dodger some more.
This summer has been an active one (and continues to be) for hurricanes in the Pacific. There have been 5 hurricanes so far, out of 5 depressions, so that makes a lot for how early in the season we are. I am quite concerned about what will happen when I get back and put the boat in the water in October, as to if there will be a storm that I have to deal with with the boat in the water. Or that I have to sail through. I am planning on going north quickly, in order to get out of the weather patterns, but then again the storms make for big swells, and good surfing, in the south, so I might stay in San Blas and hope that no storms hit there and go surfing a lot. I miss surfing too.