Strangely enough, I woke up at 6:30 this morning, after another set of intense, but good (and a little crazy) dreams.
Angela wasn't in the room when I woke, and her bed was still made, but she must have come in at one point to turn off the light I left on for her. She had said she was going to dinner with friends of hers that lived there, so I didn't give it that much of a thought. (She was fine, and came back later)
I spent the morning listening to music and catching up the journal (finally). I also sang and worshiped the Lord for a while, out of my song book that I had put together. It was refreshing to remember him again. Not that I hadn't yesterday, looking at all of his amazing designs of the different fishes! Who can understand the creative mind of the Lord? Just singing and writing and reading and listening... what a joy to not have a schedule. I'm not so sure why I woke up so early, but it turned out to be a lovely morning.
Natalie told me last night that she was going to wake up at 9, so I went to breakfast at 9:15 and had a made to order omelet, which was delicious, and some "earth bean cake" (hashbrowns!), and some fruit along with a glass of orange juice. Rachel came and joined me for a moment, but I stayed and wrote in my journal until Natalie showed up. And just a moment later, she did.
We went back to our rooms to collect some things, and then we headed off to the mall that we ate at before. Except some of the piccolos came along too; Janelle, Emily and Monique. We walked around for a while before they decided they wanted to go to Starbucks. Natalie and I had juice smoothies while they had coffee, and we all talked for a while before we went back in to look around on all the different floors. There were Chinese knick-knack stores mixed in with the regular mall-type stores. At one place, I found this purple t-shirt in a bargain bin with a large golden "v" hand symbol on it (the "peace" or "victory" symbol that you see Asian tourists using whenever they have a picture taken), that also had a random, mini pocket on the lower left hip. Natalie loved it for its Chinese randomness, and bought it without realizing it was Husky colors, purple and gold (she was even happier when I pointed this out to her).
After that amazing purchase, we finished looking at the floors and went to the basement to check out the supermarket. We had most of our fun there, looking at all the random and strange things they sell. I particularly enjoyed the seafood section, which included whole, frozen squid and fish heads (each sold separately :).Mmm, boy! Exactly what I wanted for dinner. I was a little disappointed that the squid was frozen though. It would have been that much weirder if it was squishy.
Natalie bought some cookie "Melon Collies", simply because of the name. And then some Aerated Fried Chicken Flavor Pringles, for the same reason. We also found a type of cookie that literally said, "For Men" as part of the name (we all got a kick out of that), and Janelle bought some for her boyfriend. There were crab crackers (made out of crab), shredded, dried squid (yum), and my personal favorite, shrimp carmel corn puffs. It was quite entertaining to read the labels. They even sold some chocolate "Truffs". I didn't buy anything, but it sure was fun to look around.
We all then went to dinner at the Italian place again. This time, Natalie and I had pizzas, while the piccolos enjoyed 9 yuan spaghetti. It took them a long time to bring Natalie's and Janelle's ice cremes, but I think there might have been a misunderstanding somewhere in the ordering process. All we did was point to pictures and hold up fingers for quantities.
On our way out the door of the mall, we walked across a tv screen in the floor, and we noticed that our feet acted like fingers on a touch screen. There was a running game where we had to tap our feet on a button in order to make your runner go. It recorded the "distance" and gave out 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. And then there was a soccer game, where you would touch the screen to kick the ball, sort of like on a Foosball table. There was also a weightlifting one, but that didn't make as much sense. We then left and headed back to the hotel. I was so hot from the weather, and so excited to get in the door, that I walked into the glass of the lip of the revolving door! It was nice and cool inside!
I then discovered that I had the beginnings of diarrhea, darn it! and on the last day too! Until now, I've had no health issues, so I think it must have been something I had early this morning. Perhaps the water or ice Starbucks used was not good. I saw the girl use water from a sink.
Natalie invited me to go with her to Janelle and Monique's room to hand out with them. For a long time we watched the Olympics, first diving (Natalie's sport in high school), then table tennis, then equestrian jumping, then cycling, then badminton. I tried to write in my journal, but really all I did was watch TV. Natalie had left to pack, but her roommate was sleeping, so she came back. She changed the channel around until she found this intense, soap-opera type, Chinese movie that had lots of faky Ninja battles that made us think we were watching a Chinese version of Lord of the Rings. It was perfect, really, because she loves that kind of movie... we laughed our heads off at every turn. It was sort of like '300', which she also loves. Too bad for her, we were interrupted in the middle of the climax battle, because it was time to go to dinner.
This, however, was different! It was at a Mongolian grill, which was very fun! One of the Oregon guys, that I rode home on the bus with yesterday, was there as well, and he kept waving hi to me as he passed by a few times. So I started talking with him and he sat down with us. His name is Matt and he plays clarinet. As we were leaving, he asked if we could hang out back at the hotel, since pretty much everyone else was going to be "partying". I said sure.
He sat in front of Natalie and I on the bus, as we had way too much fun laughing about her Panda Caakie, Cokie, Cookies (don't ask) and me getting lost in our conversation. Oh, bus trips; I will miss them.
Matt offered to meet in his room, but I thought the 2nd floor lounge would be so much better. After relaxing in my room for a few minutes, I went down with my deck of cards. He came right at 8:45, but we realized there were really no tables there. He suggested his room again, but there was a small table with chairs near the elevator, so we played there and talked for about an hour. It was a really good time, especially when we played the crazy card slapping game. We were both slow, as we were talking during it, and I was even able to win.
Afterwords, I went down to the gift shop on the first floor to spend my leftover yuan before we left tomorrow. I got a little brass horse that had caught my eye on the first day there. It was then time for bed, and time to fly home tomorrow!
Jp
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