It's A High Stakes Game

Yes my friends, studying abroad in China and taking a pledge to speak only Chinese is a high stakes game wherein the winners get what they want and the losers get what they get. At some points, I'm winning, and at others, I find myself eating lunch in the cafeteria of a boys-only dorm. Get what I get.

I took some pictures of my accommodations for you folks. Our room is the smaller of two in a suite-sort of setup, but it's a stupid Lovett suite-type setup rather than an awesome Jones and/or Martel setup. Please note that my roommate's computer (off screen, right) is playing Britney Spears's "Autumn Goodbye," which is something of an anthem from my youth; point for the roomie (keep track Jacob). This being said, my room is quite lovely and typical and inspires no further comment.





The bathroom, on the other hand, is a bit more unusual...I'd like to point out the toilet in the foreground and the shower in the background. Weird. The floor has one drain, sort of over by the toilet...seriously though, just imagine picking up your toilet and putting it in your shower. The complications which follow are, well, pretty much what you'd think they would be. The TP gets wet, your towel gets wet, the mirror fogs, etc...I like it though, post-shower is the only humidity I've felt in weeks. Also, the sink has no hot water so we get arctic permafrost water at the tap, oh boy.

Let's see...what else is new...Oh! I found a kuai in my pocket today and was like, Yes! A kuai! This is amusing because a Kuai (China-dollar) is worth about 14 cents, and yet finding one now makes me as happy as finding a real dollar. Low standards score!

That's about it.

Ate dinner with a weird old Chinese man in a Russian coat who stared at me, asked me where I'm from, and then said "o ba ma!" with a big thumbs up,
China-Cat