Saturday

Its the weekend, and I slept in late. I was supposed to go out last, but it had been a long week and I guess it caught up with me, so I fell asleep right after a dinner of glorified ramen. The night before wasn't bad though. I went out to this ex-pat irish pub called Malone's on Tongren Lu. Sure it was filled with fat old and disgusting "meh guo rehn" (Americans) with their trophy Chinese "tai tai" (wives) and girlfriends. But I can't say I didn't expect that, I just wanted a beer other than Tsing Tao. I ordered fish and chips, which were terrible, and I remembered, "that's right, I'm in China" and my feelings of crushed expectations quickly vanished. You learn fast thats if you want a truly decent meal, it has to be Chinese. 

The European cup was on, and an older guy next to me at the bar started chatting to me about it. I'm pretty good at pretending I follow sports, and when the conversation led to where we were both from, I had to pretend like I knew something about non ivy league college basketball. I realized than, sure its refreshing to find someone that speaks english, but I didn't come all the way to China to find another way in which I don't feel "American".  I guess Ijust have to accept that I am not fully accepted by the Chinese and not fully accepting of expats. C'est la vie. 

Today I'd like to spend just wandering around the city with my camera, practicing my Chinese, and going to the art district on Morganshan Lu to get some creative inspiration. I need to start working on something that isn't designed just to generate revenue, I'm losing my soul ha. 

One problem is, Zhou Ma needs to be taken care of, Beverly has been doing it without break all week, Carol works all the time, so I guess its my turn. Its a tricky situation. I don't speak Mandarin. She doesn't speak english. I want to go to art galleries and ponder and walk around and get lost,  which won't be fun for her (and usually isn't fun for anyone else, but thats how I learn my environment and meet people the best). Oh well, I'll shower and figure it out.