so pretty...

so this weekend was a holiday, we got monday off for Mid-Autumn Festival (sometimes called moon festival due to these lovely moon cakes filled with anything from red bean paste to meat to ice cream). The red bean one was pretty good.

In this long weekend i did a whole lot of nothing but chilling out.  I went to get my nails done with Gino's and my assistant, Penny.  She is adorable. She's teaching us Chinese in hour sessions, twice a week.  Her Chinese name is Xie Bing Qing, loosely translated to "thanks, ice clear".  Her command of English is far from fluent but without her life would be hell. Whenever we have a problem or a question she takes care of it.  She may look like she's fifteen but she's actually a year older than me!

i tried to ask her where i could buy nail polish remover because my nails were looking pretty haggard but she didn't really understand so we just ended up going to her friend's girlfriend's nail salon in a big mall near the center of town.  i've never had my nails done in the states so i thought, what the hell, it's probably less than $5... and it was, to be exact it cost $1.50! i decided to go all out: purple with white flowers and glitter, when in China...

they turned out so pretty, i think i'll go get them done on

 the regular just for fun.

watch out when i come back to the states i'm going to be totally asian-ified, i already have plans to get a haircut next month. you'd better believe it's going to be Chinese mullet-esque or some form of it. 

So after getting our nails did, Penny went home and i met up with John.  Gino was ill for thursday and friday and i had to teach one of his classes on thursday, it was no problem.  But i really, really hope he doesn't get me sick... that reminds me i have to buy halls vitamin C drops at the corner store as a preventative measure. 

Anyway so John and i wandered around, i made him try bubble tea, which he had never had! Unfortunately i wasn't sure how to order it and we ended up with plain tea flavored ones instead of fruit flavored. It was still good, but he was not big on the tapioca pearls... later we met up with this girl, Nellie.  We all met her about a week ago, she is a god-send.  She's lived in Huzhou for two years and she's from Iowa.  She speaks Chinese pretty well and knows where everything is.  (It's actually her birthday tomorrow and we're going out to dinner in a few hours to celebrate, but i'm getting ahead of myself).  We went with Nellie to an outdoor eating spot where people just set up tables near outdoor street meat carts and buy anything from fried rice to squid on a stick.  We had some beers and some fried potatoes and peanuts (eaten with chopsticks).  We met Nellie's Chinese friend, Yang, he is cool.  

i caught a taxi home around 1:30am and thought i was going to pee myself before i could get the gate open to our building.  i think my late night rabble rousing has started the rumor mill a churning.  A teacher mentioned to Gino that she heard we were staying out quite late and that most teachers are back before 9pm!  Of course we don't have to be back by then, but maybe a little earlier, this is what she said.  Now my suspicion is that they really could care less what time Gino comes back but because i'm a woman i think i'm going to get some shit talked about me.  We'll see how that all turns out.

We went to Nellie's apt for dinner Saturday night and had salad and pasta, amazing! Her apartment is a little far away from the center but it's so cute and she has an actual kitchen and it's clean!  She gave me a coffee pot and a hot plate.  So 

now i will love her forever and owe her my first born child... she also let me borrow some bootlegged movies which miraculously work on my laptop so i don't have to buy a DVD player!

Sunday was super chill: i did laundry, worked out, read some, watched Sex and the City (finally) and then had dinner with Gino while we

watched another movie and in the evening i even studied some Chinese.  Today i actually have to prepare some lesson plans for the week...boo.  it has gotten easier to plan for now though.  i borrowed a bike from this australian guy and rode it to the giant supermarket Da ren fa, this morning. Riding in Chinese traffic, even for a ten 

minute bike ride is stressful, but all my eggs made it back unscathed!

Last thing, we had some typhoon-type weather on saturday so when Gino and i went into town to meet John and didn't bring umbrellas we ended up being stuck under an awning for an hour and a half while it rained to rival biblical tales.  We watched as the Chinese went about on their bicycles and scooters undeterred, if not for making funny squinting faces as the rain beat them up. i mean it was raining hard, the picture doesn't due it justice!