Unfortunately no Pictures...sorry

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Ah, life back at the cubicle. After a rousing weekend, it was time to return the grind. Saturday we learned the easy way to Mahjong, and it actually isn’t too terribly hard (the easy way). It doesn’t have betting involved, but you do have to give money to the winner. I was down to about 4 coins after starting with 20, all of a sudden, I figured out how to play, and we finished with me having 40 coins! The excuse was Grace has no electricity, so it was getting hard to see—excuses, excuses! I’m going to have to play again before my time is through. After Mahjong came dinner and KTV (karaoke). Thankfully, the first 2 songs I choose didn’t have word (so sad!), so I sang one. Grace added in a few more English songs later for me, but (un)fortunately one of those (Evita by Madonna) had the wrong words—she even knew! Grace really was amazing both as a singer and as a person. She knows how to read Japanese, she’s an expert English speaker, and if this whole master’s program doesn’t work out for her, I think she should become a professional singer! Above and beyond research and having common interests, she’s just a neat person, as long as you don’t mind her TV viewing: Prison Break (all the Chinese love it!), Desperate Housewives, and Gossip Girls. This is how they practice their English, but I’ve never seen any of these, which again has me feeling uncultured. Anyway, after 3 hours of KTV (yikes!), I was spent, and we went home. Though I did enjoy a number of Chinese songs, perhaps I will get a CD—maybe next time I can impress them.

Sunday was pretty low-key. I just hung out by myself and did work 😞, such as grading, editing a manuscript and writing—things I could have accomplished anywhere. In the afternoon I went to the grocery store, just to see what it was like. The best word I can think of: Chaos. I think I went to the Sam’s Club of China, and I was supposed to have a member card (oops!). They let me buy stuff anyway, and it was all junk food: cookies, chocolate, bread (I love my carbs!), and gogi berries (they were dirt cheap--$1 USD for a 0.5 lbs—in the US it would have been ~$10). Unfortunately for me and my pocketbook, I’m guessing I can’t bring these through customs!

Today, Monday, we worked on editing and writing a manuscript in the morning. I know it’s important to do, but not real fun. Tomorrow I’m told we’ll go to the lab—I hope they’re right. In the afternoon, I met with a Tai Chi teacher and discussed (via Grace) a couple research projects, so we’ll see where those things go in the next couple months. Finally, we ended our day with a swim. The Chinese swim like they drive—anywhere they want! And, anywhere I go, old men always want to race, even those that don’t speak English. Thankfully there was some other English speaking Chinese guy, so I only had to race 2 guys. I also taught a few folks how to do a flip turn! Before we went, Grace kept calling me just a “common folk” swimmer, which to a certain extent I agree, but I also think that this is one of those times when her definition and my definition of “common folk” might not be the same. It was great to get back to a workout I enjoy, but I just couldn’t get over the spittoons at the end of the pool. It really was quite disgusting, which is why I had to keep swimming and moving! Dora’s words (from Finding Nemo) rang true: Just keep swimming. Grace and Leo (the other guy we went with) enjoyed it, so we might be headed back tomorrow—I must rest!

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