onewomaninaricefield's Xanga

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:27:44 GMT

Yesterday was my "little" brother's birthday (or rather "today" as I still haven't gone to bed). My "little" brother is 23 yrs old now. Wow. Time flies.

Anyone who has talked to me in the past 3 days knows that I have been having some insane craziness going on here in China. I had to dodge through the insanity at the train station to change my ticket to leave a day earlier. I finally finished and sent out two graduate school applications. I mailed a bunch of New Years cards. I bought New Years presents. I cleaned my home. I stayed up till 3am watching my favorite guy, Barack Obama, get sworn in as the President of the United States. I had dinner with a couple of Germans. And now it's 4:18am and I'm still awake. "Why?" you might ask.

Well I knew that my day today was going to be completely insane because of all the things I had to get done in a short amount of time, but I was bound and determined to see all of Obama's speech and by the time the Inauguration was over I was hooked on the live coverage on CNN. Good luck pulling yourself away from that once it starts. So I had about 5 hours of sleep last night. I had my crazy day of crazy errand-running. And finally decided to stay up all night packing and doing stuff around my apartment because I was afraid if I went to sleep I would just sleep right through my alarm and miss my trains. You see, I have to leave my apartment at 5am today in order to make it into the city to catch my train to Shanghai at 7:40am to make it there in time to meet my ex-student and fab Chinese friend Sarah and catch our train at 11:30am to go to stay with her family for the Spring Festival. Her family invited me to stay with them and I said yes because Spring Festival with a real family is usually fun. At the very least I know I'll be eating better food than the rest of you this week. Haha!

So in a half hour I'm locking up the apartment and beginning my long journey to Changsha (长沙). I am not sure if I'll get to post anything while I'm there but I will try if I get the opportunity. The train from Shanghai South Railway Station (mom and dad'll remember that place since they were there) to Zhuzhou (a city near Changsha where we'll get off the train) should take from 11:30am to about 10:30am the next day, according to Sarah. Yea, an overnight train, which will be something new for me since usually I fly because the train stations are absolutely INSANE during the Spring Festival.

Anyway, my journey begins soon. And now I must attend to a few last minute details before I shoulder my pack and ride off.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:00:20 GMT

Today was SUCH a good day.

The day dawned clear and semi-warm (warm for a winter in Hangzhou, at least). I was up relatively early and left around 10:30am to go to METRO and purchase a new coffee press. I got to METRO and couldn't find an actual coffee press that wasn't glass (my last glass coffee press that I bought in China shattered in my hands out of the blue one day). I started looking around at other containers. I finally found a metal coffee pot that had a basket that sat on the rim of the coffee pot reaching down towards the bottom. Usually you brew tea in them. Some of them do well with coffee, but it just depends on how well they're made. It was 156 RMB for this thing but it ended up being the best coffee press-like thing I could find that wasn't glass or a coffeemaker (after working at Starbucks I really prefer coffee press coffee). So I purchased it, brought it home and washed it. Before I came home I took a walk down a side street by METRO and found a tiny restaurant selling pork dumplings with carrot (YUM!) so I had lunch. Then I walked around for another 45 min before heading back to the bus stop to get on the bus and come home.

Around 5pm I decided to try out my new coffee pot. I put some Starbucks Christmas blend in the basket, heated water in my water kettle and poured it in over the grounds. Surprisingly my whole water kettle went into the pot and there was still room. "Wow," I thought and went to heat more water. I poured about 4/5 of the second pot into the coffee pot before it was full. I couldn't believe it held that much water. I was ecstatic. I believe there was some celebration in the form of me jumping up and down. The coffee was fabulous. My 156 RMB gamble turned out to be a gem. I was in love. Around 6pm I got a call from Carol. She and Hamia were going to Wumei to get a few things (Carol wanted to ask Hamia to help her pick out a good brand of cooking oil, vinegar and soy sauce since not all of them have English on the bottles and some of the best ones are only in Chinese) and then they were going to dinner. She asked if I wanted to come along. I looked at my still-rather-full coffee pot, shrugged and said yes. I figured it would be a good test to see how long my insulated metal pot kept my coffee warm. The evening passed pleasantly as both Carol and Hamia are super fun people to be around. And then I headed home to my coffee pot test....

At approximately 9:05pm I poured a cup of coffee. It was piping hot. As if I had never left it. I was amazed. From 5pm when I first brewed the coffee to 9pm and it was still hot! WOW! Actually it's 10pm now and the coffee is STILL hot. That's it. I am totally in love. I am currently planning exactly how I will get this coffee pot safely home to the US with me when I go back.

Ah. I love this day. It was pretty close to perfect.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:32:59 GMT

Today was a good day.
I got up. I finished the 2nd to last part of my grad school applications. I made a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. I went and bought train tickets to Shanghai on the 23rd so I can meet up with my friend there and go on to her hometown of Changsha. I went into Hangzhou and had dinner with Chris at the Subway by the Huanglong bus station. I bought a bag of coffee at Starbucks. Christmas blend. Yum. My favorite. And it won't be around for much longer so I knew I had to get another bag before it is gone. I got a seat on the bus on the way home and slept for the 50 min ride while listening to my Ipod. I walked to my apartment and bought a Coke (my first one in 3 weeks and I didn't even realize it till I bought it cuz I was craving something with sugar!). I made myself a cup of tea and watched a movie. Now I'm going to read for an hour in bed and go to sleep early-ish. Up early tomorrow morning and hopefully finishing my application materials, going to METRO and then planning my class for my stupid private student this Sunday. Speaking (very quickly) of the private student, I don't know how long I am going to be tutoring him. I've only had one class with him and I'm already sick of him and his family. More examples of people in China who have too much money and aren't using it for any real good. But perhaps that's best left for another blog entry.

Now off to my bed and my book! Goodnight and good morning to you all!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:49:33 GMT

China's Plastic Bag Crusade

Long long ago when I first returned to China at the end of October I mentioned something about plastic bags. Ever since then I have been reminding myself to post about it and kept forgetting. Tonight is the night I remember.

So China has this thing now where most stores are charging you for plastic bags. The supermarkets all sell light canvas ones for cheap (3.2RMB at Wumei) and charge for each plastic one you want to use if you don't have one (.5 or .3 RMB at Wumei...I can't remember which amount it is). Now that's not a lot to pay for plastic bags, but that adds up after a bit and so purchasing a few canvas bags is actually a really good investment (I have 2 lovely rainbow colored ones).

Anyway, when I came back to China and saw this was going on I was SO PROUD. GOOD FOR YOU CHINA! And SHAME ON YOU AMERICA! America should've adopted this policy LOOOOOOOONG ago. And now look--China has beat you to it and you all look like selfish uncaring environmentally careless idiots. Granted, China still has a LOOOOONG way to go to improve environmental conditions, but the fact that every major supermarket in the country is now following this policy and canvas grocery bags are available everywhere around you.....well, that's just GREAT! Every time I see someone with one of those crazy rainbow Wumei bags or other various canvas grocery bags I feel a sense of pride and satisfaction.

So this is (one of) my annual scolding blog to my family and friends.
STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS! Be cool and invest in some nice sturdy canvas bags. Most women carry large purses nowadays so don't tell me you have nowhere to put them when you go into the store.

When I was back home in the US this past year I did exactly that.....I raided my mom's store of nice heavy canvas bags from various sources (Grandpa's old hardware store made promotional bags, special promotional "Save the Earth" bags, etc.) and kept four of them in the trunk of my car at all times. Then whenever I had to go to the store it was just a quick pop of the trunk to retrieve a bag, fold it up, stuff it into my purse and then I was off to purchase things. I KNOW that many stores in America are selling canvas bags to customers as an alternative to the plastic bags, but right now it's only THAT...an ALTERNATIVE. I don't think it would be a bad idea for stores to start charging for plastic bags. Most people won't make a switch out of the goodness of their heart (sorry folks but it's true and I know a lot of you wouldn't do it even though you say you would), they need to be FORCED to make the change. Nothing puts the pressure on people to make a change like charging for something that was once free.

Come ON people! SERIOUSLY. Do this. Use canvas bags. I'm not joking. I'm dead serious. You will feel super good about yourself if you do and you might just help convince others to do it as well. Every time I exit Wumei with my rainbow Wumei bag (which is twice the size of a normal grocery bag by the way) I feel an intense wave of self satisfaction. Self satisfaction AND helping the environment?!?! It CAN be done!

Now go, my minions! Save the planet!

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:24:55 GMT

Hurrah for discovering new and wonderful foods in Asian countries!

Today I was buying a few apples at my local fruit store and I saw some girls buying some of the bulk snack foods that they have available at this particular place. I've always looked at them and thought: "I should really try some of these" but I never have.

Until today.

They have these small (maybe as long as your thumb) oval-shaped cookie/cracker things. They're swirled and look like mini cinnamon rolls almost and I have always wondered if they actually taste like them too. Honestly I figured that they probably didn't and they were probably fish flavored or something (like the bag of snacks the school gave us for Christmas my 1st year here that were wrapped like chocolate so we all took a huge bite and then realized it was actually fish jerky...UGH!). I wish I could post a picture of these things on here but since I have to post via proxy it won't let me load images on here. Darn.

Okay, anyway, so I asked these girls if they thought those things were really good and they said yes and told me they were sweet. So I paid for my apples and stood there debating if I wanted to try them or not. The guy who owns the store looks at me, laughs and hands me one of these things to try. THEY ARE SO GOOD. AND they ARE like mini cinnamon rolls...actually they're more like that Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal you Americans can buy in the grocery stores. I was immediately hooked. I got 4RMB worth of these things, which was enough to fill one of those small terribly flimsy plastic bags. I took them down to Hylan so he could try some (turns out he had tasted them his first year in China but didn't know where to buy them around here...so I filled him in on the location of this fruit store which is located conveniently near to our apartment...5 min walk). Between Hylan and I the bag is completely gone. Haha! I will have to sparingly purchase these things. I don't need to get any fatter.

Anyway, as I said before, Hurray for new food discoveries!

Monday, January 05, 2009

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:20:50 GMT

Quick rundown of my New Years Eve activities since I haven't mentioned it yet.

So, it was pretty much the best New Years Eve on the planet. I had sosososo much fun.

My friends Velina and Robin (a married couple from Bulgaria and England) hosted a party at their home for a small group of friends. It didn't start till 9pm (because Robin and Chris--another friend of ours--had to work till then) so I stayed out in Xiasha till about 8pm and then headed into town on the B1. Since I knew it would be a late night I took a nice LONG nap in the afternoon so I didn't get tired. Anyway I got into the city and Velina and Robin's place is in the West of Hangzhou out near the Xixi Wetlands (which is the complete opposite side of the city from Xiasha) and I had no idea. After asking 2 taxi drivers if they knew where the address was (she'd given it to me in Chinese) and recieved negative answers I decided to walk to the building where those two were teaching (which is right beside where the B1 lets people off) and share a taxi with them. So we get to V&R's around 9:30pm and it's just me, Velina and Robin, Chris and Calvin, Maggie (an old student of V's) and Christina (a current student of V&R's). We stayed up till 3:30am talking and eating and dancing and singing and generally being crazy. In fact the people in the apartment below us actually called the guards at the front gate of their complex to complain and they had to come knock on the door. Of course the Chinese were all in bed because this isn't THEIR New Year, that comes in late January. So after the guards came we had to be quiet so we just sat around talking for the rest of the time. Around 3:30am Velina started to get sleepy so we all decided to leave so she could go to bed. Chris and Calvin live together so they shared a cab home and Christina lives close to them so she shared with them. Maggie and I formulated a crazy scheme. Actually, I formulated the scheme earlier in the day and Maggie just thought it was a good idea and decided to go along with it.

The last B1 bus to Xiasha stops around 9pm. The last bus to Xiasha period leaves from Wulin Square at around 11pm. So if you miss these buses then you either stay in town with someone or get a hotel or take a cab back out to Xiasha. Now I knew that a cab from V&R's place was going to cost me over 100RMB (which isn't actually too expensive in US dollars, but I am on a Chinese budget people). So at that time V had said that the party would probably last till 2am. The first B1 starts at 5:30am. So I thought....3 and a half hours...no problem! There are all night McDonalds at Wulin Square (where there is also a B1 stop) and at Huanglong stadium (which is a short walk from the bus terminal where the B1 begins). So I decided I would just go to a McDonalds and have some coffee and a greasy American breakfast and read or something and then catch the 1st B1 home. Then I decided that if I was going to be out that late I might as well stick around and see the sun rise over West Lake. Since it would be the 1st day of the New Year it would definitely be a special moment for me to remember. Now, I kind of wanted to have a friend with me to do this because it would be more fun. So I got ahold of some friends who were going to be bar hopping in town and asked them if they wanted to meet up at a bar after I left the party and then go to McDonalds and on to the sunrise. They were all for it. So there was my New Years Eve....or so I thought.

Around 2am I got a text message from one of them saying they were all tired and that they were gonna call it a night and go sleep at a friend's house. So I thought about it and I was like: "Screw this, I'm going to watch the sunrise anyway even if I have to do it myself!" By this time I'd already told everyone at the party my grand plan and they thought it sounded fun but they all sort of wanted to go to bed (well Velina and Robin and Chris and Calvin had had a full day of work so they were tired). So when we were grabbing taxis to go home Maggie said she'd share one to McDonalds with me and then we could go to West Lake together. So Maggie (who I'd known only very briefly before and really got to know well that night) and I made our way to the Huang Long McDonalds. It was PACKED. I mean 3/4 full at all times and usually a nice long wait to get anything. So we got a couple of coffees. I got some hashbrowns (man I love potatoes) and she got a hash brown, cup of corn and piece of pie and we sat down and munched on our food and talked about life. She's getting ready to go to grad school in the UK next year so we talked a lot about that. She studied for a summer at UCLA so she's not a normal Chinese girl--she's very world-wise.

Finally around 5:30am we noticed it was looking a little grey outside. We still had to walk around Baochu hill to get to West Lake so we took off. We were not tired at all. And there is one simple reason for this....it was COLD. REALLY COLD. That week was one of the coldest we'd had so far. We were pretty toasty because we both dressed really warmly because we knew we'd be out late but still that wind on our faces woke us up fast. Anyway we finally made it to West Lake after a nice long brisk walk and it was really really great. The sun was up but not over the tops of the Hangzhou skyscrapers yet. The grandmas and grandpas were out for their morning exercises and the walkway was pretty empty that early. Usually when you walk around West Lake you have to fight for a place amongst people and if you want to take a picture you know that there's a 60% chance someone'll walk in front of your camera and a 100% chance that you'll have to take a picture surrounded by Chinese people when all you really want is the lovely scenery. Maggie and I both had our cameras and we both took lots of pictures. It was definitely fun. After a bit we started to get pretty cold and Maggie started to get visibly tired so I suggested we head for home. That meant I had to leave West Lake before the sun had actually touched it from over the tops of the buildings, but that was okay. It was still a lovely memory. Anyway we were actually closer to Yan'an Lu (lu = road) than Huanglong by that time so we decided to go there so Maggie could catch a bus and then I (who wasn't so tired) would just walk up the street to Wulin Square and catch the B1 from there. So we set off walking towards Yan'an Lu and Maggie's bus stop. On the way we stopped to buy a few baozi for breakfast from a roadside stand. Baozi are steamed bread buns that are filled with various things. They're a common breakfast food in China and they're super delicious. Mine was filled with Qin Cai (a kind of vegetable greens), Mo Gu (mushrooms...one that I'm NOT allergic to) and a little bit of Dou Fu (tofu). Baozi are pretty big. They're basically the size of the palm of my hand. Nice bready goodness and filling too. So I made sure Maggie got on her bus all right and then I continued on my way to Wulin Square. I think it took me 20-30 min to walk that far...I'm not sure exactly because I didn't have my watch. Anyway I got there 10 min after the Starbucks there opened so I ran in, chatted up the workers a bit, got a Venti Soy Caramel Macchiatto and walked to the north end of the Square to catch the bus.

I checked the time as I put the key in my apartment door (for blog's sake...haha). It was 9:06am. I was in bed by 9:20am. It was a good New Year.

2009 is starting off great, kids!

Monday, January 05, 2009

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:59:34 GMT

I am severely annoyed because after all that work of getting downtown and getting to the PSB the lady told me that the passports wouldn't be ready till TOMORROW and then pointed it out on the reciepts which I hadn't bothered to check because I had assumed Fanny was correct when she told me I had to go today. So now I have to drag my butt downtown again TOMORROW to do this. She actually sent me a text message saying: "Have you gotten the passports yet?" and I said: "No. I just left the building. They won't be ready till tomorrow and I didn't realize that till the lady handed back the reciepts." To which she replied: "What's the date on the reciept?" and I replied: "Tomorrow's date." To which she replied: "Sorry about that." And that was the end of the texting conversation because at that point I couldn't stand to talk to her without losing my temper. Notice she didn't tell me to bring the slips to her so she could go tomorrow. Evidently she'll be busy. Not that she'd have offered anyway. I grow less and less impressed with that girl lately. This year she's definitely not doing her job and if she was in the US would most likely have been issued a warning by now or gotten in some kind of hot water. The thing that irks me the most about this situation is that I didn't think to check the slips myself; I just took her word for it. Well, I guess we all need these reminders not to assume anything but to make sure ourselves. Lesson learned with only minor consequences I guess (though I sure could use that 4 hrs I spent downtown today & the 4 I'll spend downtown tomorrow to work on my grad school applications...grrr).

That's enough for now. I'm going to have a couple cups of coffee, fold my laundry, read a chapter in one of my books and go to bed.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:03:13 GMT

Today is a new day! And a new year! (Though I'm a few days late writing about it and this in itself will be a rather short entry).

Talked on the phone with mom and dad the other night and they mentioned that it was our pastor's last day at the church before moving on to different things. I thought I would take a short minute to say good luck to him since I couldn't be there. I hope he finds his new life and circumstances both happy and rewarding.

Today I have to go to the PSB (Public Security Bureau) and pick up my passport as well as Hylan's and Steve's. Fanny called me the other day and asked if I'd go because she didn't have time to go. I should get paid extra for this. Technically this is her JOB. Technically she shouldn't be asking a foreigner to go do this. It'll take me twice as long as it took her because I'll have to navigate through the language barriers. I don't know what she HAS to do that she can't go pick this stuff up today. Whatever. I had told her once before (being the nice person that I am---sometimes) that if it was easier for me to go pick up my passport I would do it myself. However I dislike this feeling of her shoving the work she supposedly doesn't have time to do on me. I now wonder what she'd have done if I hadn't offered that previously. Probably she would've had to go do it herself anyway and then finish whatever work the office had given her. Obviously this is my fault because I put myself in a position where she could ask me that (and I could've said no too), but that's okay since I'm not teaching right now and I have some free time. This is just another example of one more thing she can't seem to do for the laowai teachers this year just because she's busy with other things. She's just lucky there are some of us who speak Chinese.

I know I should post about New Years as well as a few other posts that I had promised to make a long time ago but keep forgetting. Hopefully I'll be able to do some of this later today or this week sometime.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:20:39 GMT

Okay, I haven't posted on here in quite a while because I was busy with the last week of classes and finishing grades, but since this is Christmas day I suppose that warrants some kind of response to the outside world.

Let me give you a quick rundown of the past few weeks in which I've been mainly MIA:
-Finished classes and final exams
-Finished 60% of grades (only 3 more classes left to go and I'll have those done by tonight)
-Slept in a lot (since I finished classes last week that means I can sleep in now till February)
-Drank a lot of tea
-Drank a lot of coffee

Etc.
Etc.

Okay. On to more specific things. Warning: This could potentially be a LONG blog.

This morning I woke up and thought: "It's Christmas. Meh. Oh well. I suppose I should pretend to do something special." So I made homemade hot chocolate by melting chocolate bars in a saucepan with milk and extra ingredients (I even put a LITTLE BIT of chili powder on top of my hot chocolate to give it a kick....but I wouldn't try this with that powdered crap you have in the States).
Later I'm going to go to METRO (the foreign food store) and buy some vanilla tea as a Christmas gift for some of my Chinese friends. I'm going to wrap the tea in red tissue paper and buy some roses to attach to the top instead of bows.

Most of you know that for me to even acknowledge this holiday while in China is unusual. Usually I refuse to celebrate it at all. And this year won't be too much different besides the special hot chocolate, the Christmas gifts for my Chinese friends and the Christmas music playing on the internet radio in my apartment. There are many reasons why I choose to be so....antisocial-like. 1) I am a kadrillion miles away from my family and this is, traditionally, a family holiday. I don't want to be all weepy and junk on Christmas because I keep thinking about my family. That's just dumb. Things are what they are and I'm not in the US. I refuse to dwell on it. 2) The laowai Christmas celebration traditions are usually too decadent and *#&*!@ ridiculous for me to ever be a part of. A friend invited me to dinner tonight in the city. It'll start at 7pm (the bus back out here stops at 9pm), the cost'll be 110RMB (I can make a whole pot of potato soup for about 10RMB). Why would I pay 110RMB for a dinner? That's just DUMB. Love to you, my friend, but I am way too....(what's the word)....maybe logical or thrifty to pay for something that'll probably be sub-par and would taste better if I made it myself. Anyway, I've got a whole list of gripes about #2 so I'd best make a separate post about that one at another time, perhaps later tonight. 3) I'm in CHINA. In China Christmas isn't a prevalent holiday. No one gets the day off work. It's not nationally recognized like it is in the US. Since I'm here in China I usually adopt the Chinese holidays. I have plenty of time to celebrate Christmas when I go back to the US someday or go to live in another western country. Anyway that is my logic for not bothering with Christmas while I'm here.

Let's see....what else is there to tell the general populace....

After I finish my grades (hopefully by tomorrow) for Xicheng campus I'm done for the term! And next semester doesn't start till next February 15th. Don't ask me yet what I'm going to do in that amount of time. I'm not sure yet. There will be some possible travelage. We'll see.

I'm both sad and happy to say that my best friend in Hangzhou...a German gal named Vanessa...got a fabulous job offer back home in Germany and will be leaving in March to take that. So sadly my last months here will not feature her in my grand adventures. I'll miss our Monday night dinners when we ate way too much and never minded. However this job sounds so great that I'm ecstatic she got it, particularly in this time of economic uncertainty. So congrats Vanessa! I'm gonna miss you!
Vanessa gave me a plant (some kind of bulbed flower) for Christmas. It's sitting on my table and makes me happy each time I see it. It's helpful that there's something else in my apartment now that is living besides me.

I bought a coffee press earlier this week (on Monday) and Cindy gave me the remnants of a package of Vietnamese coffee to get me started till I could get in to Hangzhou and buy a bag of Starbucks Christmas blend (the ONLY appropriate coffee to drink in the holiday season...besides Vietnamese coffee which has an orgasmic chocolate smell!).

I find James Taylor's gaze slightly disturbing. (A song from his Christmas album is playing on the internet radio station and they have a picture of his album cover up as well...it scared me).

I have been SUPER productive writing-wise lately. I haven't actually WRITTEN anything but I've been having all sorts of (hopefully) great ideas for stories etc. and I've been taking notes and planning out at least 3 different stories. During break I plan on beginning to write them.

For quite a while it's been cold but not REALLY cold. Like I would need my winter coat in the mornings and evenings but during the afternoons it would be too hot for it. Late last week it suddenly turned REALLY cold. I am glad it's finally here. It was like a looming doom and now the waiting for it is over, at least.

I keep wondering why I always have to do so many dishes when I'm only one person. Then I remember that it's probably because I only have 1 of my biggest kitchen utensils: 1 ladle, 1 spatula, 1 skillet/pan, 1 small saucepan, 1 pot, 1 cutting board. So if I cook every day (and if I'm home all day so I have to cook twice a day) that means I have to keep washing the stuff to use it again. Of course there are some things that I have a lot of....5 mugs, 3 cups, 12 spoons, 4 sets of chopsticks, 2 plates, 2 big bowls, 4 small bowls, 2 big knives, 1 paring knife. Don't ask me WHY I have 12 spoons. Most of them were here when I got here and I just bought a few more long handled ones to use to stir up the various hot beverages I like to enjoy in my mugs.

I had bought the most awesome pair of gloves in the world. They were grey knitted mittens that were lined with cotton inside. They were so warm that sometimes they'd make my hands sweat (ew!) AND ....they were on a string! So I'd just hang them around my neck and go. I thought those were just for little kids but obviously not in China! However on Monday night tragedy struck the glorious mittens. Somewhere between dinner and tea with Vanessa and walking home one of my mittens somehow detached itself from its grey string and was lost to the littered sidewalks of China. So now I have this one lone mitten that looks very sad. Last night I wore it to bed because I felt a little sorry for it and because my bedroom has no heater so it's cold as hell in there (sometimes I wear my pink star earmuffs to bed too but I'm afraid of breaking them). I suppose I'll just go buy another pair so my little hands won't be cold. I doubt I'll find the match waiting for me outside my apartment door some day anyway.

Well I think that's a good enough blog entry for now. I have things I need to do today so perhaps I'll post some more later tonight.

Merry Christmas! 圣诞快乐! (sheng dan kuai le!)

Monday, December 15, 2008

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:36:13 GMT

Things I have to do this week (there's a lot of them):
-Give final exams
-Enter final grades (within 3 days of the last day of that class)
-proof 2 articles for the travel website
-prepare for a writing lecture on Wednesday afternoon
-prepare to show "The Grinch" on campus on Friday night (plus ppt on Christmas and Dr. Seuss)
-prepare to show "The Grinch" on the other campus next Thursday (plus ppt. on Christmas and Dr. Seuss)
-laundry
-dishes
-put together the stuff for Vanessa for next Monday
-find a job for spring festival break
-print & hang pictures

I know that I have to do more than this, but this is all I can think of at the moment.
My brain is exploding.