I am a social Aminal. :P
Friday:
The annual Foreign Expats show at the Shanghai Gran Theater. A time of opera, symphony, pop performances (we saw Sun Nan!), acting, dancing (DUUUUDE, they had AWESOME music [Kanding Love song - Tibetan traditional music] and costumes) and of dressing up so we look like civilized members of society instead of the crazy foster lady and company.
I met the other teachers, plus J, W, H, Emma and Ron (14 of us total, invites only) and we went in. Fourth row seats - we saw EVERYTHING. Wow.
The only thing I didn't like was the traditional singers from Yunan province. Great pitch and MAN can they hold their notes, but someone cranked the mics too high - every note they sang just vibrated off my skull. I have never before experienced a spontaneous migraine. I spent the entire song with my fingers in my ears like a child.
Then last night, I hosted my first dinner party. Me, Emma, Ron, Erin and H from the office. Erin and H came over early and made Chinese dumplings while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, slicing pickles and cheese and arraning veggies and dip and washing the dishes in my new 40-piece dining set. Emma and Ron joined us later on, bringing this HUGE cheesecake surrounded by several small chocolate cakes. H brought a watermelon, and Erin brough more sweets. Topped off by spaghetti (with 3 cheese sauce), ceasar salad and warm French crusty bread with butter, we all nearly burst.
We spent 4 hours just talking, eating, drinking (vodka mixed with sprite and kiwi-strawberry juice for a souped up version of a screwdriver) and trying to set up my new DVD player. It was hilarious. There was a picture taken with Ron wearing the huge cake lid on his head.
Erin had not wanted to come, being unused to handling multiple foreigners at a time but I bullied her into it (hey, if I can go to her family gatherings and be the only person aside from her son, her brother and her to speak English, she can handle me, Emma and Ron), and she told me later she was glad I did. She had a great time, and didn't want to leave. Her husband waited downstairs for almost half an hour before she told us he was there!
(Okay, she had texted him to come up, but he speaks NO English and was more nervous then Erin had been).
Despite all of us pigging out, I still had massive food left over. I'll be eating spaghetti for the rest of the week (grossly overestimated how much we'd need, so I made two big bags, yowch), there are still multiple cakes in my freezer, and I have ceasar salad fixings for the next three days. And pickles. And cheese. And crackers. Hee.
H rocked completely. From teaching me to make Mongolian dumplings (where she's from), to coming with me as we trouped upstairs to introduce myself to the neighbours (I forgot to remind Erin to bring an extra chair, so we begged one off the lovely couple upstairs who laughed at the silly foreigner and gladly handed one over), to staying and helping me clean up even though I told her goodbye quite firmly. She glared at me, took her coat off, and marched into the kitchen where we spent an hour washing and drying a mountain of dishes.
....including fighting with the pot to which I had apparently charcoaled about a dozen strands of spaghetti. My meals are not complete without SOMETHING burning.
Loads of fun. ^^ And I spent Saturday and today playing with my sketchbook and photoshop and I finally whipped up a four page comic that I like, even though it's not the greatest thing in the world. angel_katchan, you're gonna love this.
Image heavy.
I spent today being utterly and totally lazy, watching The Fast and the Furious, followed by two viewings of 2 Fast 2 Furious, and now I'm going to reread ALL of Maygra and Khaleesian's fics because I'm craving Dom/Bri. ^__^
The annual Foreign Expats show at the Shanghai Gran Theater. A time of opera, symphony, pop performances (we saw Sun Nan!), acting, dancing (DUUUUDE, they had AWESOME music [Kanding Love song - Tibetan traditional music] and costumes) and of dressing up so we look like civilized members of society instead of the crazy foster lady and company.
I met the other teachers, plus J, W, H, Emma and Ron (14 of us total, invites only) and we went in. Fourth row seats - we saw EVERYTHING. Wow.
The only thing I didn't like was the traditional singers from Yunan province. Great pitch and MAN can they hold their notes, but someone cranked the mics too high - every note they sang just vibrated off my skull. I have never before experienced a spontaneous migraine. I spent the entire song with my fingers in my ears like a child.
Then last night, I hosted my first dinner party. Me, Emma, Ron, Erin and H from the office. Erin and H came over early and made Chinese dumplings while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, slicing pickles and cheese and arraning veggies and dip and washing the dishes in my new 40-piece dining set. Emma and Ron joined us later on, bringing this HUGE cheesecake surrounded by several small chocolate cakes. H brought a watermelon, and Erin brough more sweets. Topped off by spaghetti (with 3 cheese sauce), ceasar salad and warm French crusty bread with butter, we all nearly burst.
We spent 4 hours just talking, eating, drinking (vodka mixed with sprite and kiwi-strawberry juice for a souped up version of a screwdriver) and trying to set up my new DVD player. It was hilarious. There was a picture taken with Ron wearing the huge cake lid on his head.
Erin had not wanted to come, being unused to handling multiple foreigners at a time but I bullied her into it (hey, if I can go to her family gatherings and be the only person aside from her son, her brother and her to speak English, she can handle me, Emma and Ron), and she told me later she was glad I did. She had a great time, and didn't want to leave. Her husband waited downstairs for almost half an hour before she told us he was there!
(Okay, she had texted him to come up, but he speaks NO English and was more nervous then Erin had been).
Despite all of us pigging out, I still had massive food left over. I'll be eating spaghetti for the rest of the week (grossly overestimated how much we'd need, so I made two big bags, yowch), there are still multiple cakes in my freezer, and I have ceasar salad fixings for the next three days. And pickles. And cheese. And crackers. Hee.
H rocked completely. From teaching me to make Mongolian dumplings (where she's from), to coming with me as we trouped upstairs to introduce myself to the neighbours (I forgot to remind Erin to bring an extra chair, so we begged one off the lovely couple upstairs who laughed at the silly foreigner and gladly handed one over), to staying and helping me clean up even though I told her goodbye quite firmly. She glared at me, took her coat off, and marched into the kitchen where we spent an hour washing and drying a mountain of dishes.
....including fighting with the pot to which I had apparently charcoaled about a dozen strands of spaghetti. My meals are not complete without SOMETHING burning.
Loads of fun. ^^ And I spent Saturday and today playing with my sketchbook and photoshop and I finally whipped up a four page comic that I like, even though it's not the greatest thing in the world. angel_katchan, you're gonna love this.
Image heavy.
I spent today being utterly and totally lazy, watching The Fast and the Furious, followed by two viewings of 2 Fast 2 Furious, and now I'm going to reread ALL of Maygra and Khaleesian's fics because I'm craving Dom/Bri. ^__^