February 28th: post office hassles and ruan monkeying
[ posted by mcdeviltoast ]
Day 165
Woke too late for lunch at the dining hall, but while I blogged Erin brought a couple rolls and a large almond cookie. The universe takes care of me. She had gotten in at 7 that morning, taught at 8.
I showered, compulsively trimmed at my beard by constantly finding stray longer hairs and scissoring them at the sink. I'm still going to try and let it grow until July, but it's getting harder to withstand. It doesn't help that most of Chinese cuisine is in some kind of soupy sauce. You can feel it on your chin, but not when there's a barrier of hair. I'm terrified of being unaware that half my dinner is streaming down my face like a newborn baby.
I pedaled out to the post office, my least favorite bureaucratic ordeal here. When I first got there, a few chaps were just sitting down behind the desk. I body languaged to one guy if he was open and he sat there and grinned, so I went over to the other side, but he looked like he wanted to help. I walked back over, pulled out my two items that needed shipped and he then gestured to where I just was. "Fuck, dude, that's what I was asking!" His job was to kep the chair warm I guess.
My girl knew English, a delightful surprise. It took 45 minutes to get everything sorted and sent. 45 minutes of filling out forms, getting pushed and nudged while I did it. Americans may complain that the post offices in the states move slow, but at least there are civilized queues, and an antiseptic lack of chaos. I miss that.
I rode over to Dongzhou and Heather and I threw the frisbee around for a bit. Mike was on the field punting a football to Andy and trying to hurt him while doing it. Afterwards we collected Rhys and Jeni, walked up to the music store. I went upstairs and played for a half hour. I'm getting better at the falsetto vox on "Ultraviolet for the Mole."
Then all of us had dinner at the place across the street from the school. Tasty dishes, plentiful portions, and they were determined to put red pepper pieces in everything. After, everyone had Chinese lessons, so I rode home and tinkered around on the ruan for a bit, came up with a riff that I tried to blossom into a song. Mostly I'm just trying to get used to the feel of it. It's strange to press the strings and not have them touch the fretboard.
Erin and I watched "Dodgeball," had a BBoss. Watched some news, went to sleep.
Woke too late for lunch at the dining hall, but while I blogged Erin brought a couple rolls and a large almond cookie. The universe takes care of me. She had gotten in at 7 that morning, taught at 8.
I showered, compulsively trimmed at my beard by constantly finding stray longer hairs and scissoring them at the sink. I'm still going to try and let it grow until July, but it's getting harder to withstand. It doesn't help that most of Chinese cuisine is in some kind of soupy sauce. You can feel it on your chin, but not when there's a barrier of hair. I'm terrified of being unaware that half my dinner is streaming down my face like a newborn baby.
I pedaled out to the post office, my least favorite bureaucratic ordeal here. When I first got there, a few chaps were just sitting down behind the desk. I body languaged to one guy if he was open and he sat there and grinned, so I went over to the other side, but he looked like he wanted to help. I walked back over, pulled out my two items that needed shipped and he then gestured to where I just was. "Fuck, dude, that's what I was asking!" His job was to kep the chair warm I guess.
My girl knew English, a delightful surprise. It took 45 minutes to get everything sorted and sent. 45 minutes of filling out forms, getting pushed and nudged while I did it. Americans may complain that the post offices in the states move slow, but at least there are civilized queues, and an antiseptic lack of chaos. I miss that.
I rode over to Dongzhou and Heather and I threw the frisbee around for a bit. Mike was on the field punting a football to Andy and trying to hurt him while doing it. Afterwards we collected Rhys and Jeni, walked up to the music store. I went upstairs and played for a half hour. I'm getting better at the falsetto vox on "Ultraviolet for the Mole."
Then all of us had dinner at the place across the street from the school. Tasty dishes, plentiful portions, and they were determined to put red pepper pieces in everything. After, everyone had Chinese lessons, so I rode home and tinkered around on the ruan for a bit, came up with a riff that I tried to blossom into a song. Mostly I'm just trying to get used to the feel of it. It's strange to press the strings and not have them touch the fretboard.
Erin and I watched "Dodgeball," had a BBoss. Watched some news, went to sleep.
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[ posted by mcdeviltoast @ 2/28/2005 07:42:00 PM ]
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The dumbtronica act Montana & McDeviltoast, along with their friends, keep each other updated on their activities. Much fun having by all, and Pockys fear for their lives!