National Day Holidays

I've been very slack about updating this!

Last night I went out with Dane, a guy I met at the TESOL course in Australia and who ended up working in the same city as me, along with the girl who's tutoring him in Chinese, some of her friends, and some other people I didn't know. We had dinner at a "Latin restaurant", although I'm not really sure where the Latin part came into it. Perhaps the sushi was Latin sushi? It doesn't matter much either way - it was enjoyable, and I liked most of the people I met.

After dinner we went to a bar at a youth hostel, and had a lot of fun with drinking games. Nobody got particularly drunk despite that, but I now know some awfully fun games! Finally, Daphne (Dane's tutor) mentioned that the bar would give a free drink to anyone who would sing a song. Apparently they didn't really mind what sort of song, so I put my hand up. We had to wait a while, so by the time I got up to sing everyone was ready to go. I sang "A Formidable Marinade", by Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen. It's a great song, especially when surrounded by ex-pats who do understand the lyrics and locals who sometimes understand some of them. Look up the lyrics if you don't know the song, to see why it was so amusing to sing. It also turns out that I can hold a note a lot better when I've had several drinks. Who'd have guessed.

I didn't have any trouble waking up this morning, so I went to yoga - the last three days there hasn't been any yoga, since they get holidays too, after all. After yoga, the owner invited me to lunch with one of the teachers and the girl who actually speaks English. We went to a little noodle restaurant just down the road, and it was mighty good. Much better than the buffet the night before that was five times more expensive! I like the little diner-style restaurants over here, they're always the best way to eat.

So, the last couple of days have been pretty darn good, even though I didn't get out of the city like I'd planned.