The above heading, translated directly into English, reads, "The water has stopped." More precisely, there is no water in the dorm right now, and hasn't been since about 8:00 last night. Apparently, they are re-doing the underground pipes somewhere, and as my roommate put it, "well, it's because there are a lot of wells in Harbin." The major source of water here is not the river, apparently, (fortunately, or I would probably be glowing in the dark by now just by showering in it), but a series of underground wells. My roommate also added, "Harbin is located on a plain." Yes, but how does that explain a 15 hour (and counting) disruption of water service to the dorm, with no prior notice??? Argh! Oh well. My new plan of action is to do what Americans do when they lose water, and that is shower at the gym.
The weekend was fun, though - Friday night went out to eat at a local restaurant - highlight of the evening was one of my friends being served a bottle of "南波万" spring water. For those who can't read characters, that's pronounced "Nanbo Wan". As in, "We are Nanbo Wan!" It is, we all agreed, the perfect name for the next Chinese boy band.
Saturday I slept in very, very late, then read a book, got some coffee, did some homework, and then wondered how it had gotten to be dinner time already. One of the CET students was celebrating his birthday, so a group of about 15 of us headed out to dinner, and then to a local club which the Russians hadn't invaded yet. It was fun! The evening ended with me slowly falling asleep on a couch while my roommate played a riotous dice game involving the loser putting out a candle flame with their hand. Apparently, it never got old, though I was wondering how they kept it up for so long - the tequila probably helped. I still haven't found a Chinese translation for tequila - apparently it's a new enough import that it hasn't gotten an official dictionary entry yet. Along with progress comes tequila... complete with salt and lemon!
Yesterday I went for a run, went clothes shopping at a local clothing market where EVERYONE was staring at me (maybe it was because I was wearing shorts, it being about 85 degrees out... weather finally changed!) I kept hearing calls of "aren't you cold???" No, I wasn't cold, because it was REALLY REALLY warm out! grrr. The highlight of yesterday was definitely the ultimate frisbee game, where I not only managed to catch it a few times, but also threw it in the right direction once or twice! (I also threw it in the wrong direction a lot, but progress seems to be being made...)
ok - off to class now. more later!
