March 28th: badminton on the roof and gutrot on a stick

Day 193

Woke, wrote, caffeinated myself, ate lunch in the dining hall, rode out to see about buying an old skool soccer ball, but it was 2.5 times more expensive than the other ones. Apparently traditional ones are a collector's item now. I rode to the DVD place, exchanged two with no English options for two Pixar films.

The day was brilliantly sunny, so ofcourse I went to the music shop to practice the catalogue. I think I finally have the chorus to "Sober Me Up" sounding solid. Afterwards, I went to the middle school, went with Mike to Times to go soccer ball shopping, and ended up getting outfitted with badminton, the most modestly priced set.

On the way out, we got meat-on-a-stick, my first try of the stuff. We played on the roof, laughing our asses off at the shuttlecock's refusal to be killed. We would hit it as hard as we could and it would still gently float down. It took some getting used to. A few times the 'cock went over the side and we watched as students tried to throw it back to us in vain. One kid was very clever and put a rock inside to give it weight and was able to throw it into Andy's window.

We played until the sun went down, watching as the cheap racquets disintegrated with the force of our blows. Oh well. They were maybe 50 cents US. Heather had taken a bike ride into the country and gotten strawberries. We went into her room and had some before pedaling to the hotel for sustenance. Mike had his heart set on a chicken sandwich, but they had none that night. He finished his beer and went on to KFC.

We sat for a long time waiting for Heather's sandwich and while we sat, my body began to reject the meat-on-stick from earlier, with a vengeance. I excused myself to the WC, bless the hotel for having Western toilets. I sat and felt like a manager seeing an unpleasant guest out the door.

Me: "Ok, thank you, meat-on-stick, for trying us out. I'm sorry we weren't to your liking..."
M.O.S.: "Well, I never...."
Me: "Once again, we're very sorry..."
M.O.S.: "I'll never stay here again. I can't believe (grumble grumble)
Me: "Ok, I hope you find better accomodation somewhere else..."
M.O.S.: "I'm going to write a letter to the owner..."
Me: "Would you just LEAVE?! We don't want you in here either!!!!"

Then I realized there was no toilet paper. Oh god, no. They have these little steel canisters that make it impossible to see if there's any in there and I hadn't the time to check beforehand. I entertained the idea that if I sat there long enough, the girls would send Rhys in to check on me and I could have him pass soem TP under the door. But no, that might take a while. I decided to duckwalk to the next stall, but then some guy came in and started barking into a cell phone.

I stood at the ready by the door, but when he left, another gent came in. Gah!!!! When he left, I swiftly moved to the next stall with spy prowess and finally was able to finish my toilet. Relieved and spent, I rejoined my friends at the table and we finished our drinks, left.

The beautiful day was gone and a damp, windy haze was left in its place. I pedaled back to my place, found a bag of strawbereies on my door. Heather is a sneaky fruit fairy. Erin and I watched "Night Shift" and then mutually turned in. I dreamt about some weird boat cruise and I was floating in an inner tube swirling in a rapid eddy somewhere near Albany. Erin and some woman who was our cabinmate collected me in the lifeboat and we all got back on the ship. Weird.