Nice day.
Yesterday was just a typical day in China for me. Nothing special happened, but I thought I'd share.
It was Saturday morning, and as usual most of the teachers were completely hungover. When I say "most of the teachers" I mean the English.
But we all met for a late brunch downtown at this coffee shop.
It's called the "Go-In Cafe". It's owned by this Chinese guy who speaks ZERO English, but for some reason ALL the foreigners in town go. In fact, I've never even seen a local inside.
Anyhow, it was closed....so we just sat outside on the steps. It's in a residential neighbourhood, so it was really peaceful and quiet. **something VERY RARE in a country with 1 billion people**
We saw:
-kids running after each other playing a Chinese version of "Tag"
-old ladies sitting cracking watermelon seeds
-a police cruiser drop off a lady with her grocery bags
-a man with a donkey and cart selling cabbage
-2 teenagers, both with iPods not even talking to each other
Finally, we peeled ourselves off of the cement stoop and met Wes (from Atlanta) and his Chinese girlfriend YoYo, and Doug (from Chicago) with his Chinese girlfriend WaWa for dinner at our favourite BBQ restaurant.
**The girls are best friends and thought it would be cute to double the syllables in their surnames. Gag me.**
The BBQ restaurant is awesome. They even brew their own honey beer. I am not a huge beer-drinker, but this beer is really, really good.
Everyone.....got.....plastered.
Then the arguments about Taiwan vs. China, and which rugby team is going to win the next whatever cup in England began, which is usually my cue to leave.
I know nothing about rugby and am VERY apathetic about the Taiwan issue.
(If a "nation" is only recognized as a nation by 3 other nations, it's not. But I'm not going there.)
Again,nothing special happened. We'll probably do the same thing again next week, but with different people.
But it sure beats complaining about Air Canada and my catty male co-workers all the time.
It was Saturday morning, and as usual most of the teachers were completely hungover. When I say "most of the teachers" I mean the English.
But we all met for a late brunch downtown at this coffee shop.
It's called the "Go-In Cafe". It's owned by this Chinese guy who speaks ZERO English, but for some reason ALL the foreigners in town go. In fact, I've never even seen a local inside.
Anyhow, it was closed....so we just sat outside on the steps. It's in a residential neighbourhood, so it was really peaceful and quiet. **something VERY RARE in a country with 1 billion people**
We saw:
-kids running after each other playing a Chinese version of "Tag"
-old ladies sitting cracking watermelon seeds
-a police cruiser drop off a lady with her grocery bags
-a man with a donkey and cart selling cabbage
-2 teenagers, both with iPods not even talking to each other
Finally, we peeled ourselves off of the cement stoop and met Wes (from Atlanta) and his Chinese girlfriend YoYo, and Doug (from Chicago) with his Chinese girlfriend WaWa for dinner at our favourite BBQ restaurant.
**The girls are best friends and thought it would be cute to double the syllables in their surnames. Gag me.**
The BBQ restaurant is awesome. They even brew their own honey beer. I am not a huge beer-drinker, but this beer is really, really good.
Everyone.....got.....plastered.
Then the arguments about Taiwan vs. China, and which rugby team is going to win the next whatever cup in England began, which is usually my cue to leave.
I know nothing about rugby and am VERY apathetic about the Taiwan issue.
(If a "nation" is only recognized as a nation by 3 other nations, it's not. But I'm not going there.)
Again,nothing special happened. We'll probably do the same thing again next week, but with different people.
But it sure beats complaining about Air Canada and my catty male co-workers all the time.