Expensive Dinner and Chilling

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I didn't really do too much today looking back on it. This morning I got up and met Cat at the gym to work out for a little bit. I made an appointment to get a strength test on Friday morning (see how much the gym has improved me - if at all). Then I went to the gym and neither Kast nor Camillo were there. Bensony (or Jimmy) ended up doing my hair and messing with me for a bit of time. He's really cool (as are all of my L Salon boys). Then I went home to meet Cat for lunch. She made some macaroni and cheese (the real Kraft kind - her parents sent it to her) and she added beans and carrots to it. I made a salad which I added sausage to (sounds a little strange but is really good). It was the first time I'd had macaroni and cheese for a little while and it was really nice. Then we sat around and I graded for a little bit while Cat did some computer work. Kelvin came over a bit later to do his computer work (as I have Internet now it's cheaper for everyone to just come over here with their own computers - or use mine - than go out to the Internet bars all the time). Camillo interrupted our study session to take me over to the Chinese bookstore downtown. He wanted to buy an English book. I was a little confused because he has so many English books as it is but he said that many of them are old and the one good one he currently uses he's almost done studying. At first he looked at some Chinese books and I stared at picture books wishing that I and my family could read Chinese as some of the titles were things my father would be interested in. Once we got up to the level with the English teaching books he tossed me many a book and asked me if they were good for speaking. Many of them I rejected because they were simply memorization books, others had really old English in them and still others had too much Chinese in them. I tried to get Camillo to stop and actually read the books for a minute for their level (and every now and again it would work) but when I let him look at them on his own he would simply flip through really quickly - which wasn't helping at all. We finally found two really good books - one was a memorization book and the other the second level to the book he currently has. I explained to him that the best way to learn to speak was still by talking with us and not by reading the books. We also found a hindi-chinese dictionary (but no teaching books) and tried to look for a Chinese book for me but it didn't really work very well. On the way back to Peace Plaza I called Cat and we convinced Camillo that he needs to speak English more to the other foreigners and not just myself.

After waiting at the Salon for a little bit Stone came and met me there and then we took a taxi over to dinner. Dinner was a bit strange - there was little to no food but some new things that I've never tried before. An okay fish, sea urchin (which tastes a bit strange I have to admit), some nice rice balls, some good meat. Nothing really very filling. Anyways, the bill came to 1140 kuai (about 23 US dollars a piece) and after paying the bill Stone turned to me and said "never take me to this place again." I was like "Why?" And he said it was simply for the price tag. I have to admit I don't really enjoy going to expensive places - almost immediately afterwards one is really hungry as one hasn't eaten anything. Camillo was supposed to come to dinner but for whatever reason (whether it be the fact that Stone was there or what) he didn't. Camillo and Stone are scared of each other (and Stone admitted it tonight). They haven't really spent much time together at all - just seen each other a couple of times. I think the two of them need to get together and chat. So for the St. Patrick's Day party on Friday I'm going to get the two of them together. Whether they like it or not we've got my best friend in China on the one hand and on the other hand my semi boyfriend. Craig invited a girl from Ming Xing (the school he works at) out to dinner and she was the first person ever to call Stone my boyfriend. Stone's response was "okay" (which I don't really know what that means).

After dinner Camillo came out to a bar with Craig, Cat, Kelvin and myself. I played fusball with him and actually had fun (even though I'm awful). He's so lively that he makes pretty much anything fun. I think we had more fun laughing at him than actually playing the game. Camillo spoke in a bit of English and we did our best to speak it to him as well. We played a bit of cards and taught him "shuffle" and he told us that we had to drink a "quarter" of our glass of beer (for each round). Considering the amount of alcohol in beer here that was nothing. We had a group hug before we left which was really awesome and then Cat and I gave Kelvin and Craig hugs before walking home arm in arm. Over all it was a good day although fairly unproductive.

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