World Cup Fever

World Cup Fever

I went out to dinner this evening with my students at Shepherd. They are the sweetest peeps; we ate Sichuan at a nice restaurant around the corner. Food was a bit spicy, but dinner was fun all the same. Raymond always tries to drink people under the table. He tries, I guess. We had quite the feast; cow stomach, fish, shrimp, tofu, yam noodles, pumpkin rice cakes. When the bill came, I witnessed price negotiation at its best. My students were surprised to find that small river shrimp cost 78 rmb/lb. After several minutes of back and forth with the restaurant staff, we got a 20 percent discount. Geez, if only I had that kind of tenacity. Even the office director Simon gets DVDs for only 5 kuai. Guess I’m just a sucker.

After dinner, I met up with some friends at Windows downtown to watch Argentina v. Germany, supposedly one of the biggest games of the tourney. I sure as hell wouldn’t know; despite its hunks, soccer doesn’t appeal to me. So anyway, this Windows place was packed to the seams. It was so fucking hot, and damn, people really get worked up over this shit. Next to me, a young German lady– who happened to look a lot like Jodie Foster– was on the verge of tears. She was totally stressed, and her face twitched and trembled– a breakdown was imminent. The game was ok to watch; unlike American football, at least each play lasts longer than three seconds. And the game seems more straightforward; no first and second downs and all that bullshit. Still, by the end of the second half, I was ready to jet. Especially with German chick on a tightrope next to me. Her anxiety was disturbing. After the supplemental time wrapped, I left.

Poor cabbie couldn’t understand my address. I didn’t even drink (meaning, no slurred speech). I repeated it for him like four times and then I got really impatient. I mean, come on, I’ve been living here almost three years. I know how to fucking pronounce my address; don’t tell me I say it wrong. Just don’t.

Blah, blah. World Cup. Who cares. The big news is Bubbey’s coming home tonight. Yay! I guess it’s been about seven weeks. Not really that long in the grand scheme of things, but definitely long enough. I’ve had a my singledom fix and now I’m ready for buddy time. Unfortunately, he’s going to be dead tired AND jetlagged, but I’m just glad we’ll be together again.

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Speaking of pet sitters/boarders, John and I got a good laugh out of this ad which appeared in a Shanghai magazine

One Response

  1. Some cabbies just have really bad Chinese.Hey, didn’t you say you were going back to the USA? If you’re still here on the 8th, I want you at my wedding!