Rough day..

Saturday I watched Kung Fu Panda at Wangfujing's New East Mall. It was sooo cute! everyone should go see it! The animation is amazing and it its so funny. I watched it with my dad, which made it even more funny, because the man laughs really jovially. He is a very strange person - I have never seen him so jovial before in my life... I was always so intimidated by him. The other day he was searching for his name on google, and discovered that there was another Kangbin Zheng with the exact same characters. The cell phone number was online, so he sent the guy a text msg inviting him to dinner. Isnt that weird?

Speaking of weird...So remember that guy on the metro? He sent me this email later:

可以听到你的拉小提琴的声音就好了，还希望知道你的全名，

呵呵，我有点健忘！

How strange right? I politely emailed him back, and he hasnt responded. I was pretty clear in my email that I didn't really want to continue communicating, and I think he go the point (Let's hope).

So after lunch, Kevin and I went to take a tour of Beida, given by its very finest recent graduate, LinLi. Beida's campus is sooo pretty! I like it soo much better than Stanford. It has so many trees and pretty romantic areas, including a lake, pagodas, willow trees. It's like living in a Chinese park almost! There are so many areas I would want to just sit with my boyfriend and chat. Not like Stanford, everything is so open and hot.

Then we went karaoke! Which was fun, well...I usually LOVE karaoke. But it's not that fun when its with people you don't know that well and also when you're singing Chinese songs that you never heard before. Additionally, I had a massive headache and was really tired due to jet lag. But still, I learned a few new Chinese songs and met some cool people.

I'm really not used to text msging people, which is really really common in China.

So Sunday, I ate Peking Duck with my dad's old childhood friend and his family. I had been dreaming about Peking Duck and lusting after it ever since I arrived, but its a lot better to dream about than to actually eat. I really enjoy eating the fat and the skin...which is probably not good for my health. It's really the thought of eating it which is better than the actual taste though..

I've been teaching one of my colleagues English to prepare for exam to go to Oxford. He's been offered contingent admission, meaning as long as he can get a certain score on the exam, he gets in. And since I'm going to Oxford next spring, I'm determined to help him succeed! In return, he teaches me Chinese, basically - I read aloud these articles pertaining to my research. It's so hard!

I had been craving Italian food for the longest time, so I finally ordered some to deliver to my house. My dad said he didnt want any bc it was too expensive, but when it arrived I felt bad for him so I offered him half of my food. Well anyway, we each ate only half of what would fill up one person....I still crave italian food...I was eating it while watching AntZ, which is a really cute movie! I also watched the goddess, which is this old 1930's silent movie made in Shanghai about a prostitute who does everything to make a living to send her son to school. It's pretty touching, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in old Chinese films.

Anyway, now that brings me to today. I had a really rough day:

for starters, i left my key at home. Then, my cell phone ran out of batteries as soon as a got to my office. I was supposed to meet my mom's friend for lunch but with no cell phone, I could only call her from my work phone and arrange to meet at Shangdao Coffee at noon exactly. But by 12:16 she was not there, and so I walked back to my office to call her and it turns out that she couldnt find parking and went home and was going to take a taxi instead to some OTHER place, because she didn't know where my building was. So I had to walk to the other place, and well...she was supposed to invite me to lunch but she invited me to KFC, which is a little weird. Then by the time I got back to the office, did a little bit of work, I had to leave again to meet my friend for dinner/work. So I called her from my office phone and she told me the address..only it was the WRONG address, so I end up taking a cab to somewhere I have no idea, and she calls me to tell me I'm in the wrong place, and I take a cab to the right place, but it turns out the right place was only 1 block away, so I paid 10 yuan for like 5 seconds of driving.

Then...well, my cell phone was out of batteries and couldnt make any calls, so my friend had no idea what had happened to me and started to go home. I finally found the friggin building and went to her office but she was gone. Well, I was finally able to find her and eat dinner, which was actually pretty good hot pot.Then - I took a cab home and realized when I was trying to get into my house that I left the key at home. My phone was dead so I couldn't call my dad. I banged on the door but no one was home. I went to a nearby convenience store to call my dad. I had to keep turning on my phone and hoping that it had enough batteries for me to look up the number. My dad's phone said something in Chinese that I didnt understand, but the only part I understood was "please hang up now". So I did, and I couldnt contact him. So then I decided to go get my hair cut. That ended up taking like 3 hours because I also got it permed. Then, when I left the hair cuttery, I realized my cell phone was gone. I went back to the convenience store to ask if they found it but they said no. I went back to my house to see if my dad was home, and there was a business card with his number on it left there for me, which was good because since i lost my phone i had no idea what his number was. I finally got in contact with him, but first I had to go back to the haircuttery to see if I left the cell phone there, which I didnt. So anyway - now I have no cell phone. And it was my dad's birthday today, so I had tried to go home as early as possible to spend it with him... but instead I made him and my mom worry so much. By the time I got home, I told him happy birthday, but it was already past midnight, so it was over.