I slept the most solidly last night that I have so far. I went to bed at about 10:30pm and woke up at 7am. Back at home, I wouldn't consider that enough sleep. But I wanted to get up this morning, so I did.
I was the first one up for a while. Michelle got up around 8am and took a shower, didn't come out of her room until about 9 or so? But Annie, who didn't go to bed until 2am, didn't get up until around 10:30. So I had some time to myself to catch up on things. I got a few emails from people back home, which nearly made me cry. I miss home, but it makes me happy to hear from people. So if you're back in B'ham, feel free to send me messages!
It was a very gray day, so the Mall trip was nixed. It's been rainy and nasty outside, and pretty cold, even though weather.com says it's 53 outside. That is a lie. Your breath does not fog up that way when it's 53. Anyway, one of Michelle's college friends flew in this morning, after finally getting his visa and everything. He knows how to say "good morning" in Japanese! Anyway, he came over and didn't have any bedding, so we went on a trip to Target. We tried to tell him how to get around and everything, but I think he was a little overwhelmed. Anyway, we got some food stuffs, too, and some other little random things that we were needing. I also got some of those turn-cans-into-bottles things? That you pop onto aluminum cans to turn them into bottles? I think they're called Bottle Toppers. My parents made fun of me for wanting them, and even Wentao was surprised that I was buying them, but Michelle was impressed like me! I think it's an awesome idea!
We also rode the bus by ourselves! The drivers weren't as nice as the one yesterday, though. Why are bus drivers so mean?
Anyway, we came back home and found out that Wentao, Michelle's friend, had bought a Verizon cell phone, but a T-Mobile card with minutes. Since he can't use those two together, we were telling him that he should return the phone. Apparently this isn't as prevalent in China as it is here? Or maybe it was because he'd already opened it. Anyway, we were trying to tell him that in America, we return things if we can't use them. The thinking is, if we paid money and we can't use it, we deserve our money back. So what he decided to do (what we told him to do, really) is return the phone for a T-mobile one. There is a Verizon store downstairs, though, and he went down there to ask about any pay-as-you-go programs that they have. The guy apparently told him that if Target didn't take back the phone, they would downstairs. I was impressed.
Annie and Sarah are big Vikings fans, so they went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the game, and took Michelle with them so she could see what a sports bar is like. I took a nap while they were gone. They came back at halftime, which I'm glad for because I didn't need to sleep any more, and apparently they had scared Michelle with all the yelling and everything. Whoops. She's fine, it's just really different from China. Wentao also came over at one point to give us an update on the phone situation and Annie and Sarah yelled at the TV at one point, which scared him, too. He asked me why I was so calm and I said that I just didn't care like they did. He said, "Oh, okay. Yeah, it's good to be calm." XD Cute. I asked Michelle later if the Chinese just aren't enthusiastic like Americans and she said it depends on who follows sports, but sports aren't like this in China. There aren't any like...nationwide popular sports or anything. If you play it, you're a fan, but other than that, you're not really. Though she did tell me that instead of university vs. university teams, they have department teams within the university. I thought that was interesting.
I didn't eat much today, which might be why I'm so tired. But we have more orientation in the morning, from 9-12:30, then a couple of optional workshops in the afternoon, which I don't think any of us are going to. Classes don't start until Tuesday, so I won't have my first class until next Monday. Therefore, I only have to do the orientation tomorrow morning. I need to go to CVS to pick up a few things, though, and we didn't make it to the Chinese market. We may do that. I also hooked up the DVD player, so movies are a go now. I bought "True Blood," which ran me $50 at Target, but neither Annie nor Michelle have seen it and I love the show anyway. It's a good investment, right?
Okay, time for bed. Goodnight. ♥
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Pork dumplings, Rockville tour, Sushi Damo
Hello, all! Significantly better day than yesterday, I'm happy to report. :)
This morning I woke up at 8:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I just got out of bed. That was when I came in here and started my previous entry. We were supposed to have a pancake breakfast, free, complete with blueberry and chocolate chip, starting at 9:30. Annie told me that she wanted to sleep in until 10:30 and I told her that we'd bring her some pancakes. Michelle and I went downstairs a little after that time and found that the clubroom was locked. There was a sign on the door saying that one of the people from Fenestra was supposed to come open the door for us, but they were delayed, so the time was pushed back to 10am.
About 10 after, Michelle and I started to head back down. We ran into some other Chinese students in the hall who just came up from downstairs and said that it still wasn't open. So we just decided to wait until Annie was up and we could all go down together.
I got Annie up a little after 10:30, though she said she'd been awake for a while, she was just lazing in bed. She got up and got ready and we actually lost track of time just sitting in the living room and talking. It was about 11:30 by the time we went downstairs to check again. This time, there was no sign or anything, so we figured we missed it. Darn!
Annie insisted that she could make us some pancakes, but we didn't have any baking soda or salt, so we decided to try these frozen pork dumplings that her father had bought at a Chinese market not far from here. It took the water FOREVER to boil, but they ended up being REALLY good. They came in a bag of 30 for $3, and we had some leftover, so we're going to be eating those a lot, I expect. During the cooking and the meal, we discussed food and decided to cook on the weekends. Annie and Michelle will try to teach me how to make Chinese food and I'll try to teach them some Southern recipes.
Also, something that struck me as a little bizarre--they don't use dishwashers. Apparently this is an Asian thing? I don't know, but I find dirty dishes disgusting and have always hated washing dishes, so I'm all about some dishwashers. So I taught them how to load it this morning and once we get enough dishes in it, I'll teach them how to use the detergent and turn it on.
After lunch, we had a few minutes to chat some more before we went on the Rockville bus tour. Instead of an official tour, it was really just the students from Fenestra who wanted to go see where the things are in our area. We just took a bus line and ran to the end of it, then ran back. Amazingly, the bus driver was awesome and didn't charge us any fare. A couple of interesting people sat next to me. One woman, when she got on the bus, instructed a couple of the students up front to get up for an elderly woman who was getting on. I was immediately impressed. "A Southerner!" I thought. The woman herself was standing. A female student gave up her seat. The woman then smiled at the boys who were still sitting and said that now they should give up their seats to her. I was even more impressed. I am a complete believer in chivalry. The student said that she was okay and wanted to stand, so they didn't end up getting up.
But a little bit longer down the ride, Michelle turned to me and asked if she should let the outspoken woman sit down because she had two bags that looked heavy and I told her that yeah, it was probably a good idea and would win her a lot of points. The woman sat next to me and we talked a lot. I found out that she's trying to get her Bachelor's in Business Management for the fifth time right now. Before, she kept having to drop out because people in her family kept getting sick and she had to take care of them. She told me that at one time, she had six jobs simultaneously. It was just very inspiring to talk to her, and she wished us all luck on completing the program.
A few stops later, an elderly Chinese woman got on and sat next to me. Well...she was American, but both of her parents were Chinese. She was very insistent that she was not Chinese. She struck me as being a very conservative Republican, saying that she went to Bush's second inauguration and she cared nothing about going to Obama's and that she was tired of DC and wanted to get out. She did tell us about some cool events happening, though. On January 30, they're having a farewell party for the panda cub Tai Shan at the National Zoo from 11am-3pm. Peking Acrobats are also coming to the Strathmore sometime in February. I'll have to look up the exact date again. However, the woman was also kind of...not mentally sound, I guess? She mumbled to herself when she wasn't talking to me and she repeated herself over and over and over. I mean, after telling me about fifteen times in a row about the zoo party, she wrote it down on a strip of paper and gave it to me. I folded it to put it on my purse and she took it back from me and folded it another way. It was just strange. I am glad to know that there are people willing to chat here. I'm a Southerner, I'm comfortable chatting with strangers.
After the tour, we came by the library to check out the DVDs and different selections of books they had available. They actually have a long shelf of Chinese books that thrilled Michelle. I looked for Japanese. I found Vietnamese, Korean, Russian...no Japanese. It was disappointing, but I also didn't look very thoroughly. Annie was getting a headache because it was so stuffy, so we decided to head back to the room. Before we left, though, we found a little niche in the wall that had a bunch of flyers and pamphlets about stuff going on. I pointed out to Michelle that she should take the pamphlet on human rights back to China. They had a map of the town square that's really nice, too.
Came back to the room and kind of chilled for a couple of hours before going to dinner. A friend of Annie's and her roommate came with us. Connie goes to Washington University with Annie, and Sarah is in the International Affairs program with me. Sarah's also traveled really extensively and speaks several languages. She's a poli-sci major, but not one of the annoying ones. She's obviously very serious about her work here.
We decided to go to a sushi place that also had Japanese food, Sushi Damo. The sushi was inexpensive, but if you got the Japanese entrees, it was kind of pricey. Since I don't eat sushi, I got some chicken katsu (torikatsu?) that was delicious. It was really, authentically Japanese. Our waiter was also authentically Japanese and very hot. When I was explaining to everyone what the different things were, he came over and asked if I wanted to apply for a server position. ♥ He was very cute.
After dinner, we just came back to the room and hung out. Michelle's still a bit jet-lagged, so she's very sleepy and going to bed now. I'm getting tired myself. Tomorrow Annie and Michelle want to go down and explore the Mall. I'll see how I feel tomorrow to see if I want to go with them. I've seen the Mall a lot of times, it's a lot of walking, and it's also crowded, so. May not happen. I could just enjoy the time to myself. But we'll see, because I really do enjoy my roomies and love spending time with them.
Alright, I think I'm going to go do some pleasure reading now. Hoping that tomorrow is as awesome a day as today!
This morning I woke up at 8:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I just got out of bed. That was when I came in here and started my previous entry. We were supposed to have a pancake breakfast, free, complete with blueberry and chocolate chip, starting at 9:30. Annie told me that she wanted to sleep in until 10:30 and I told her that we'd bring her some pancakes. Michelle and I went downstairs a little after that time and found that the clubroom was locked. There was a sign on the door saying that one of the people from Fenestra was supposed to come open the door for us, but they were delayed, so the time was pushed back to 10am.
About 10 after, Michelle and I started to head back down. We ran into some other Chinese students in the hall who just came up from downstairs and said that it still wasn't open. So we just decided to wait until Annie was up and we could all go down together.
I got Annie up a little after 10:30, though she said she'd been awake for a while, she was just lazing in bed. She got up and got ready and we actually lost track of time just sitting in the living room and talking. It was about 11:30 by the time we went downstairs to check again. This time, there was no sign or anything, so we figured we missed it. Darn!
Annie insisted that she could make us some pancakes, but we didn't have any baking soda or salt, so we decided to try these frozen pork dumplings that her father had bought at a Chinese market not far from here. It took the water FOREVER to boil, but they ended up being REALLY good. They came in a bag of 30 for $3, and we had some leftover, so we're going to be eating those a lot, I expect. During the cooking and the meal, we discussed food and decided to cook on the weekends. Annie and Michelle will try to teach me how to make Chinese food and I'll try to teach them some Southern recipes.
Also, something that struck me as a little bizarre--they don't use dishwashers. Apparently this is an Asian thing? I don't know, but I find dirty dishes disgusting and have always hated washing dishes, so I'm all about some dishwashers. So I taught them how to load it this morning and once we get enough dishes in it, I'll teach them how to use the detergent and turn it on.
After lunch, we had a few minutes to chat some more before we went on the Rockville bus tour. Instead of an official tour, it was really just the students from Fenestra who wanted to go see where the things are in our area. We just took a bus line and ran to the end of it, then ran back. Amazingly, the bus driver was awesome and didn't charge us any fare. A couple of interesting people sat next to me. One woman, when she got on the bus, instructed a couple of the students up front to get up for an elderly woman who was getting on. I was immediately impressed. "A Southerner!" I thought. The woman herself was standing. A female student gave up her seat. The woman then smiled at the boys who were still sitting and said that now they should give up their seats to her. I was even more impressed. I am a complete believer in chivalry. The student said that she was okay and wanted to stand, so they didn't end up getting up.
But a little bit longer down the ride, Michelle turned to me and asked if she should let the outspoken woman sit down because she had two bags that looked heavy and I told her that yeah, it was probably a good idea and would win her a lot of points. The woman sat next to me and we talked a lot. I found out that she's trying to get her Bachelor's in Business Management for the fifth time right now. Before, she kept having to drop out because people in her family kept getting sick and she had to take care of them. She told me that at one time, she had six jobs simultaneously. It was just very inspiring to talk to her, and she wished us all luck on completing the program.
A few stops later, an elderly Chinese woman got on and sat next to me. Well...she was American, but both of her parents were Chinese. She was very insistent that she was not Chinese. She struck me as being a very conservative Republican, saying that she went to Bush's second inauguration and she cared nothing about going to Obama's and that she was tired of DC and wanted to get out. She did tell us about some cool events happening, though. On January 30, they're having a farewell party for the panda cub Tai Shan at the National Zoo from 11am-3pm. Peking Acrobats are also coming to the Strathmore sometime in February. I'll have to look up the exact date again. However, the woman was also kind of...not mentally sound, I guess? She mumbled to herself when she wasn't talking to me and she repeated herself over and over and over. I mean, after telling me about fifteen times in a row about the zoo party, she wrote it down on a strip of paper and gave it to me. I folded it to put it on my purse and she took it back from me and folded it another way. It was just strange. I am glad to know that there are people willing to chat here. I'm a Southerner, I'm comfortable chatting with strangers.
After the tour, we came by the library to check out the DVDs and different selections of books they had available. They actually have a long shelf of Chinese books that thrilled Michelle. I looked for Japanese. I found Vietnamese, Korean, Russian...no Japanese. It was disappointing, but I also didn't look very thoroughly. Annie was getting a headache because it was so stuffy, so we decided to head back to the room. Before we left, though, we found a little niche in the wall that had a bunch of flyers and pamphlets about stuff going on. I pointed out to Michelle that she should take the pamphlet on human rights back to China. They had a map of the town square that's really nice, too.
Came back to the room and kind of chilled for a couple of hours before going to dinner. A friend of Annie's and her roommate came with us. Connie goes to Washington University with Annie, and Sarah is in the International Affairs program with me. Sarah's also traveled really extensively and speaks several languages. She's a poli-sci major, but not one of the annoying ones. She's obviously very serious about her work here.
We decided to go to a sushi place that also had Japanese food, Sushi Damo. The sushi was inexpensive, but if you got the Japanese entrees, it was kind of pricey. Since I don't eat sushi, I got some chicken katsu (torikatsu?) that was delicious. It was really, authentically Japanese. Our waiter was also authentically Japanese and very hot. When I was explaining to everyone what the different things were, he came over and asked if I wanted to apply for a server position. ♥ He was very cute.
After dinner, we just came back to the room and hung out. Michelle's still a bit jet-lagged, so she's very sleepy and going to bed now. I'm getting tired myself. Tomorrow Annie and Michelle want to go down and explore the Mall. I'll see how I feel tomorrow to see if I want to go with them. I've seen the Mall a lot of times, it's a lot of walking, and it's also crowded, so. May not happen. I could just enjoy the time to myself. But we'll see, because I really do enjoy my roomies and love spending time with them.
Alright, I think I'm going to go do some pleasure reading now. Hoping that tomorrow is as awesome a day as today!
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