Steve's China Blog

Friday, November 14, 2008

Veterans and spies

I usually wear an American flag lapel pin when I go to work on American holidays. This last Tuesday was Veteran's Day, and I wore my pin. No one has ever asked me why before, but someone did this time. It was interesting explaining the concept of the holiday, but I could not explain why some people got the day off work but not all veterans did.

Here's a cool holiday message from Staff Sergeant Dean of the USMC...



I hope you all had a good Veteran's Day!

On Wednesday I went to the movies to see the new James Bond movie. It was pretty good. The theaters at the Wanda Plaza are new, and it was pretty nice. We saw the movie in English with Chinese sub-titles. My friends said that seeing it in Chinese was just not the same. Anyways, the only problem with watching it with Chinese sub-titles is that there are some scenes where they are speaking in Spanish, so I could only guess what they were saying. It was a very nice way to spend the evening.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Names and cars

On Friday night I went out with two young ladies named Shirley and Ocean. Some people here do pick English names that we would consider strange. At my office we have an Echo, a YoYo, and a Fairy. I've also met a Strawberry before. Anyways, it was an enjoyable evening with Shirley and Ocean, and I did not get home until about 2:00am. On Saturday I played around on the computer, and then went out to dinner with a very cute girl named Kitty.

The A1 Grand Prix has come to ChengDu, and this weekend was full of racing activities. Qualifying runs were held on Saturday and the main race was on Sunday. Shirley and Ocean went on Sunday but I had plans that afternoon, so I did not join them. They thought the race was very exciting and they had a lot of fun. Info about Sunday's race can be found here.

In a previous post I had mentioned that the wall in my apartment was being repaired. The person working on it was suppose to come on Sunday afternoon, but I found out later that he had been hit by a car! Luckily he was not seriously injured... just a few cuts and bruises. I know he wanted to get right to work on it (so he would not lose any income), but I told him that he should take a few days to relax and he could finish it later.

Since no one came over to fix the wall on Sunday I didn't have anything to do, so it was another day of playing on the computer. If I had known that the work on the wall was not going to happen I could have gone to the races. Oh well. I had told Kitty the night before that I could cook western food pretty well, and she was nice enough to came over on Sunday night for dinner. I cooked spaghetti and we watched a DVD. After dinner we went for a walk around my apartment complex and then she had to go home. It wasn't that late, but I'm going to be working an early shift at the office for the next few weeks, so I had a chance to turn in early.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Busy weekend for a change

Except for the weekend I went to BiFengXia my weekends lately have not really been worth writing about. Mostly they have just been relaxing, and I have not been doing much. This last weekend though was rather busy... On Friday night I went out to a Halloween party at the Shamrock Pub. I spent most of the evening just chatting with friends there. I was kind of surprised there were so many people in costume there. They also had a face-painter there, and a lot of people had some nice designs painted on their face. Everyone had a great time. I wish I had not forgotten my camera.

On Saturday I went out for a late lunch with my friend Reese. We went out for DaPanJi, and even though I had been to this place several times before I got lost getting there. The restaurant in on a little street called FangHuaHeng Street, which is off another little street called FangHua Street. I was talking with Reese on the cell phone the whole time, and after trying to figure out where I was for awhile I found a motorcycle cop to ask directions from. Reese said that there was a motorcycle cop where she was too, so we had them talk to each other on their radio to figure out where I was. One was nice enough to give Reese a ride to where I was, so we finally met up and then went to lunch. It was a weird day.

On Sunday I went to Hooters with a friend to try their brunch menu. I tried the All American Breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast with jam, and fruit). My friend had the Steak and Eggs (same as the other but with a steak instead of the bacon and sausage). I didn't care much for the sausage, but the rest was really good. After we ordered our food we noticed that one of the TVs there was playing the Oregon State/USC football game. We ended up staying to watch the whole game. The Chinese customers in the place didn't watch, but they did look up to see what we were cheering about when a good play happened.

On Sunday evening I had dinner with Fiona and Angela. We went to Peter's Tex-Mex, and ordered way too much food. The girls paid for dinner since I had bought them drinks on Friday night at the Halloween party. It was a very enjoyable evening. Angela works at a clothing store that her family owns, so she usually can not go out until after 8:30pm, so our dinner was a little later than I am use to. I'm hoping they both can come over for dinner at my place some evening.