Thursday January 3rd, 2011

Let me say this: while it ma be difficult to find time to write these journals while I am in class, the difficulty in doing so is second only to writing journals in a time of lethargy. My excyse for the next few days is that I am engaging in meaningful cultural experiences by doing as the Chinese are doing over the next few days: nothing. My second excuse for not doing anything is that nothing is open right now. That, even more than my weak attempt at an excuse, is true.

Over the last week, I have had a grave suspicion… About what, you ask? It could be anything from my roommate who is secretly plotting my death, to massive surveillance by the police, to a plot to overthrow the organization of ACC and incorporate it into the patient hegemony of the National Flagship Language Program. However, none of these are true; the real reason that I lay awake at night fearing for my life is thatChina is eating my computer’s battery. I can use the battery for about 45 minutes at low light and with one or two programs running, but when it gets to 50% battery life, the computer completely shuts down. I have voiced these fears to my fellow classmates, and they say that it is a critical flaw in the design of the Mac batteries.

I thus remained in my room, eating the supplies that Morgan sent to me, alternately skyping people back home and typing emails. I literally did not leave my room until 4 in the afternoon, when Shazeda knocked on my door and demanded that I rise from my languorous position on my bed, that we might get some food. Shazeda, Lee, and I (the only people who were left in the entire dorm, I have concluded. Everyone else was visiting their respective host families) found ourselves cruising around the neighborhood looking for a restaurant that would serve us a meal, and we found one open near the West Gate. It was one of two open restaurants among the myriad of Xi Men restaurants.

This restaurant specialized in selling very expensive seafood, which was kept in several tanks at the entrance of the restaurant. They kept catfish, carp, shrimp, my favorite tiger shrimp, bass, grouper, flounder, soft shell turtles, and more. We dined on three delicacies soup served over puffed rice, spicy and numbing tofu (that is the real name; you can’t make this stuff up), and stir-fry eggplant – the greatest dish in this country. We had quite the scare during our meal. You see, we have a language pledge that all of us diligently observe. There we were, speaking all sorts of Chinese, when what could only be a clone or the doppelganger of the ACC program director walked into the room. We immediately silenced ourselves, hearts in our mouths. We were safe.

We came back to the dorm, with the intention of watching a movie. However, the Internet in China had other plans. Naught was to be watched online, and we finally gave up. Shazeda’s room soon became the party room in the dorm, as everyone was getting back from a day with the Chinese family. We played Ma Jiang, spades, and liar’s dice, as others prepared to go out for the evening. I was having none of that, and went back to the room about 3 in the morning and fell asleep. It has been a surprisingly Anglo day here in the great country of China.

Translation: The Central Government Group from Songs and Dances of Ethnic Minorities. I've been looking for this place all over...

Sunset in my neighborhood