Tiffany's Birthday

Saturday, November 22. Today is Tiffany's birthday. I walk up to Yandi Square to get my weekly copy of 21st Century Supplement to China Daily and pick up a DVD of Home Alone to give her for her birthday. Then I meet up with Ashley and Kelly to go to the general wholesale market (not the clothing one).

When we arrive, we take the elevator all the way to the top (8th) floor and then start working our way down! On the 7th floor, are Chinese "Christmas" decorations (I kid you not), complete with some small artificial trees. Of course, there are lots of Chinese decorations as well. It will be interesting to see what goes up around town and school.

Next up (or rather down) is the "stationary" floor where I finally find a large piece of paper to mount some of my "calendar" pictures on so I can hang them on the big, blank wall in my apartment. I also get 12 large, clear, plastic envelopes to organize some of my lesson plans in (hey, better late than never).

I get some knitted gloves with the tips of the fingers cut off after Ashley suggests they would be good for weaaring while working on the computer. I also get a small gel-filled pillow that heats up when you plug it in. According to Tiffany and David, who bought one last time, it stays warm all night.

At the moment, there is no heat in my apartment. The units in my bedroom and office that provided a/c in the summer will also provide heat in the winter. Except that the one in my bedroom appears not to put out any heat (although it's working), and the one in my office was working fine but now has gone hay-wire, switching from on to off and beeping constantly. So here is what I'm wearing while typing this blog entry:
1. my new knitted gloves with only my finger tips exposed;
2. a long-sleeved, turtle-neck shirt;
3. a sweat shirt;
4. a red, zip-up fleece;
5. nylon stockings on my legs;
6. heavy cotton trousers;
7. knee-high socks;
8. padded slippers;
9. a blanket wrapped around me from waist to ankles.
It's about 60 degrees in my apartment. My nose is quite cold but otherwise it's not too bad. I actually don't care about having heat in my bedroom (especially now that I have my little "bed-warmer") but it would be nice to have a little heat in the office since this is where I spend most of my time.

We take a taxi back to Yandi Square and have dumplings for lunch at a little place near ErZhong (Ashley and Kelly's school). Then I hop in another cap for the short ride home (it's cold, my knees ache and I'm tired!) so I can rest up before the festivities tonight!

At about 6:20, Tiffany, David and I head back to Yandi Square to meet up with Ashley and Kelly. We then take the bus over to ZZ's Walking Street where there is an Italian restaurant we want to try. Ryan, Vinny, Bridget, Cristina and Suzanne meet us there so there are 10 of us for the celebration. The restaurant is actually owned by an Italian man who is married to a Chinese woman. Apparently, it has been open only about six months. The food is quite good, but we pass on the 500 yuan bottle of French wine and the 2000 yuan bottle of Italian Chianti and just have hot water. Once again, I'm not kidding. It is almost as cold in the restaurant as it is outside. Various ones among us try the pizza margherita, the foccacio, the spaghetti bolognese, the lasagna and something else I can't remember. All reasonably good (especially considering we're in China). I'm sure we'll go back sometime when we need another fix of Western food.

Afterwards, the "younger generation" goes roller-skating at an indoor rink not far from our school. I take the bus back to Yandi Square (meeting up with yet another Chinese university student! His name is Yang Yuan, and he goes to Hunan Industrial College, majoring in computer science) and walk home.