Today's big news: successfully ordered a pizza for delivery! OK, so I didn't actually order the pizza on the phone, because I asked one of the Chinese roommates to do it for me, but I did talk to the delivery guy when he got lost, and told him how to get to the school (the streets here, apart from the main streets, are NOT very well marked - in order to get home from Starbucks, I know to turn right after the playground). Basically, I told the guy that the school was located in between the Guoyi Hotel and the police station. Which is true, in a sense (there's a street corner involved, but not knowing either of the streets involved, I decided to ignore that). I think he must have understood, because the pizza arrived about ten minutes later. It was ten dollars total (including delivery) which is considered outrageously expensive for dinner in China, and I even felt a bit awkward about spending 75 yuan on a pizza, but it was REALLY good, and they DELIVERED it, which was even better! and tomorrow... leftover pizza for breakfast!
Apart from the pizza, not much incredibly exciting happened today. Right now I should be filling in my "Chinese Dynasty" chart, which involves doing internet research to find key dates and cultural contributions for the earliest Chinese dynasties. Bo-ring. grrr... I really need to get this done, though, as in half an hour I need to head up to the TV room so I can try on my new suit! The tailors will be here to make the final adjustments. Hopefully I will still be the same size as I was last week, though with all the food I've been eating, I'm not sure. Man... I really miss running. My walk around the neighborhood yesterday in search of "American Pie 5" was pretty good exercise, but not the same.
There are a couple of broader themes I was thinking about today in terms of Chinese society - I don't have time to go into them in depth now, but just to remind myself: remembering and forgetting. Self-reflection? paving over. culture of victimhood? What does it say about a society when the only memoirs are written by successful businessmen? there are no victims here.
