We found our 3rd snake in two days this morning. It was black and red striped and I think if may have been poisonous. I’m not entirely sure where it was originally found but the kitchen staff had it out by the back of the restaurant when I heard about it. Tana and her team found a huge one out by the Brickyard yesterday -- which I never got to see -- and I found a really tiny black and yellow one in one of the houses. Am I crazy to still be walking to and from work lots of the time?
It was pretty hot today but the humidity was insane. We were supposed to have thunderstorms and I think they might have been better. I felt like I was dripping all day. I wish my hair were long enough to tie up properly!
Tan Liang suddenly decided in the middle of the day that the office needed to be cleaned, so we pulled absolutely everything off all the shelves so the housekeeping staff could dust and vacuum. It didn't seem like the most productive use of time but anyways...What she says goes.
It’s only 9 pm here but I think I might be heading to bed quite soon. I’m working 8:30 am to 12 am again tomorrow and then quite possibly 7:15 am to 12 am the next day -- or if not then 7:15 am to 6 pm on Monday and 8:30 am to 12 am on Tuesday. I will be very ready for my days off on Thursday and Friday!
Today was pretty crazy. We had a lot more people than usual on the Schoolbus -- which I have to confirm on Friday mornings -- and nobody seemed sure of what they were doing. I finally figured it all out, but now I have to hope nobody cancels at the last minute. I don’t think I stopped running around all day and I had night duty for a large dinner party tonight. On the plus side, they had a BBQ, which meant nice leftovers. I wrote 48 e-mails in the last 2 days. Being the only intern on duty sucks!I got 2 awesome pieces of mail that totally made my day (Thanks Lee-Ann and Grandma)! I really need to find myself a post office soon so I can return the favour! My new Chinese words of the day are rain and tired. Hopefully tomorrow I will have to use neither.
The office was pretty empty today since Mona and Giula both had their days off. I got to host and do phone duty, though I escaped night duty by switching for Sunday with Gina. It was less hot than it normally is because it was raining (again), but it was just as humid as ever.
We had potatoes and meat for lunch, but once I got my food I looked beside me and noticed the cashier (Zhang Xian Lin) wasn’t eating. I asked her why not and she said she couldn’t eat it without rice...I guess the stereotype is true...Maybe it would be a bit like us eating meat sauce without pasta--just food for thought (no pun intended :p)
I haven’t walked home from work in a while so I did that today and it felt great! I was walking along singing to my ipod when I ran into a boy with a broom sweeping the path. He walked in front of me for a good 5 minutes, looking back ever 30 seconds as though he had never seen anyone Caucasian before. I guess I’m still not quite used to it.
All my cooking was great yesterday but I decided to go to the fruit stand instead of the vegetable store today so my options were a bit more limited for lunch. I ended up with a tomato, garlic and noodle soup and some plums. Although Dragon, one of the chefs, looked at it with displeasure, it tasted pretty good.Lee-Ann and I were talking tonight about her coming to visit. We decided that if she would walk/run to Vancouver, I would buy her a Kayak to come here. Googlemaps says it should take a little over 5 months -- if she doesn't get lost -- so I may have to extend my trip, but it would totally be worth it. I wonder if she would need a visa...Anyone else want to join? I’ll even take you out for dinner when you get here!
I decided not to go into Beijing on my days off this week (today and tomorrow) because it is way too hot here and thus would be even hotter in Beijing. I slept in this morning and headed to the local store to buy some vegetables with Tana when I got up. We cooked lunch together (a pepper and onion dish made by me and eggs and tomatoes made by Tana) and ate that and some flatbread we ordered from the local restaurant.
After lunch I enjoyed relaxing, working on my Chinese and watching ted talks in my wonderfully air conditioned room. Eventually it was time for dinner and Tana and I cooked together again (cauliflower and pork made by her and eggplant and zucchini by me). She’s a much better cook. After dinner we played a couple of games of chess and both lost in about 5 minutes each to Simon.
I’m looking forward to relaxing again tomorrow and hopefully the internet will continue to work.
On a different note, Tana and I are talking about maybe going to Inner Mongolia -- where she is from -- together at some point which would be seriously awesome!
