For St. Paddy's Day, a pretty big group of us went to our regular club, Mazo, because Wednesday nights is House music (a mix of really good techno and random songs that always include Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas and sometimes other stuff) and because they give us free drinks (alas these drinks were not green). The DJ has a habit of yelling things like "你准备好了吗？？" which means "Did you prepare well???" in the middle of songs and I think he recognizes us now.
Anyway, I don't think anyone at Mazo knew it was St. Paddy's or noticed that a lot more Westerners than usual showed up, wearing lots of green. At one point, I was dancing and this skinny Chinese guy started dancing with me. My general line of thought was that he wasn't dancing incredibly close to me or being creepy, so why not dance with me a little? Bad idea. He leans forward and says to me (in English), "You are so beautiful!"So I smile and try not to be too creeped out, when he asks me, "你是法国人吗?" (Are you French?) I tell him no, that I'm a 美国人 (American) and he repeats that I am so beautiful. So in a moment of utter creeped-outness, I grab Erin and sneakily slide her into my place so that now she's dancing with Skinny Creeper. Later she told me that he repeatedly told her she was beautiful. What a smooth talker.
Towards the end of the night, they put on Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone" (and all of y'all know I'm a huge sucker for some good MJ) and passed out glow sticks, which was the absolute highlight of my night.
On Friday, my Chinese Culture class took a field trip to the Presidential Palace here in Nanjing, which is where the governor of Jiangsu Province (where Nanjing is located) lives. The Palace has a beautiful garden, and my teacher was telling us that in Chinese gardens, symmetry is very important. All the elements are supposed to be present and something must be in bloom every season.
Of course, all those beautiful blooming flowers come with a price attached. My allergies went beserk and have been punishing me ever since.
One last story before I leave y'all so I can do some homework. When we were wandering around the Presidential Palace, this non-Chinese man and his Chinese friend were strolling behind me. The non-Chinese guy glances at me then says, "You have a nice size."
My mouth drops open a little and I make this half offended, half WTFdidhejustsaytome noise and my friend Jelena, who heard him, goes, "What??" But by this time the guy and his friend are too far away to hear us, although they did turn around and look at us a few times. When we left the Palace, Maxine (Erin's roommate) spots them and goes, "I'm gonna go ask them what they went by that." And she does.
When she returns, she reports that he's Algerian and he thought I had a nice shape--a nice body. So of course when she says Algerian, all I can think of is the movie Taken (which is completely unfair to this guy seeing as how he's probably not a human trafficker) and getting freaked out.
Anyway, here's a picture of the non-Algerian friend I made at the Presidential Palace:
beard. i lolled. mainly about the cat friend. i have made LOTS of those...
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