I'm not exactly sure where I left off from in my last post. I'll start with a week ago today. It was my friend Christina's birthday. So a group of us went to Houhai to celebrate. We found a small bar called Huxley's. Their slogan was "Shut up Just drink", which we all found amusing. While out, I met some of the other foreign students that other TBC people have been making friends with. I ended up talking to a kid named David for most of my time out. He's been to China a few times before and is pretty excited to be back. Before midnight, I left with Kathleen, Lorie and one other girl because we all had things to do in the morning.
Wednesday morning I met with my tutor and then had lunch with her. I really enjoy our tutor sessions and I feel that they're really helping. The rest of Wednesday was uneventful. Then Thursday rolled around and nearly all of TBC went out to Cinco de Drinko at Saddle Cantina. Adriene, Michaela and I were buddies for the night and after one margerita at Saddle, we decided to bounce because it was too crowded. We stopped in at Smugglers to chill out for a bit then went over to Butterfly to dance and get french fries. Butterfly was nearly deserted so we had a lot of fun. There were a few locals in there too and about two or three of the boys were good dancers and we had a lot of fun watching them. One came over to dance with us, but he wasn't one of the talented ones and I'm pretty sure it's because he was just drunk.
Up until this point it had been a pretty fantastic night, but then we climbed into a cab and our driver turned around to tell us all that we were very pretty. At first it was funny, but we then became very concerned that he kept staring with this goofy, eerie grin on his face at whoever happened to be talking. We became even more alarmed when we no longer were able to recognize where we were and he began to have a conversation with someone on his cell phone (this was after he tried to sneak taking a picture on his phone). Luckily, Michaela eventually saw something familiar and we pulled over nearly immediately. We all got out of the car (cabbie included) and bid an awkward farewell. As he pulled away I had to resist every fiber in my body to avoid breaking out into a run. After venting and comparing notes, we figured out that we had his license number and we all wanted to do whatever possible to report him.
Friday was a relaxed night in for me: I watched two Chinese movies and then went to bed. Saturday Michaela, Adriene and I went shopping near Tien'anmen Square. I ended up getting two Pashmina scarves and some smaller bags plus a couple other knic-knacs. We then explored the area for a while longer then headed back to campus. After dropping off our new treasures, we went to dinner and then I spent another quiet night in. Sunday was spent completely on chores. I did Chinese for about five hours, occasionally interupted by breaks to hand-wash some laundry. I then met my tutor around 7:30 to practice speaking and dictations. After doing some more homework, I got to bed at the early hour of 11:30 pm.
Monday was pretty uneventful and now it's Tuesday again and a bunch of people are planning to go out tonight for Kerri's birthday. As of right now, I'm seriously considering joining them. First I have to finish posting and do some Chinese before making that a definite commitment. The rest of the week is looking pretty exciting too. Tomorrow we're going on a fieldtrip for religion and then on Friday I'm meeting my host student for lunch before going to volunteer with a Chinese student named Jackie at a local community center to teach English. And then Saturday marks two months being in China. It seems impossible that I've been here that long, or that I have so little time left. I hope I'm able to look back on this experience when it's all over and can say that I took full advantage of it. I suppose, if nothing else, I've become very good with a pair of chopsticks and my Chinese is maybe at the level of survival.
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