Forget my pride...

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Another day of only 3-4 hours of sleep How long can my body deal with this punishment? A couple more weeks I hope… I woke up at 11am and washed up before doing my ritual internet. Then I headed out at noon and grabbed some vegetable soup at the little stret side stall next to the clothes market. Then it was yet another visit to the fakes market to pick up a new Van Dutch hat since Zack had let the other one fly off his head while in a car. While downstairs I ran into the cute little Chinese girl I met while eating lunch, Han. I had joked with her that she was now my girlfriend and she had immediately agreed. We exchanged numbers and I moved on.

Next stop was Bookworm where I sat down next to a nice Chinese girl who worked at Sodexho. Her name was Lily Chen and she was married to the owner of the restaurant. We chatted about improving the café while I uploaded photos and music to my MP4 player. A bit later Sarah and Annie showed up and I switched tables to chat with them. Apparently they had been out till 6am partying at some guy’s house. Probably she’d hooked up with someone but I didn’t ask. I told her I met a friend that met her in Tianjin, Maggie. Then we talked with Annie a bit about shitty expat girls in China before I took my leave to return to the hostel.

I napped for about 30 minutes and then jumped in a cab to go to the student Wudaokou area. I found a little café called Cava Coffer where I ate a good chicken sandwich and listened to music. Then I stepped out and saw young foreign students everywhere. My first stop was to go shopping for some clothes. Then I made my way to Lush, a popular student hangout. It was Open Mic Night and it was already packed at 9pm. Some Australian guy was singing popular American music along the back wall while numerous people chatted away. I found a seat on a sofa next to a young American guy sitting next to some Chinese girl that he was working on. I was so tired I felt I could close my eyes any second and just drift away. But I was waiting for Sarah to call back and it really bothered me that she still hadn’t. Before leaving I met a young Chinese guy, Alex, who spoke English and liked hip hop.

I jumped in a cab and began heading back. I had a dilemma of whether to eat my pride and call Sarah again. 2 days left, fuck it! I called her and told her I’d stop by. Annie was still awake and we chatted for awhile about art. Then she went to sleep and Sarah and I were going to watch a DVD. But we were way too tired so we retired to the bedroom and began chatting. I surprised myself by describing how she opened up my feelings and canceled my pride in a way I hadn’t felt for years. She dropped the cold, distant air after awhile and though we didn’t make love, it was nice to fall asleep with her in my arms.

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