Pookie in China and the Red Afghan

Doesn't that sound like the name of a book?

Guest Blog from China

Pookie sent me a guest  blogger paragraph about his birthday in China, and the excursion to The Great Wall.

上个星期六是我的生日。所以，我们不得不去跳舞。但是我们先去了长城。我们去了一个比较没有人的地方，离这儿有点儿远，可是漂亮极了。我们花了 三个小时在长城上，很多人拍了很多照片，很好玩儿。我和我的朋友，丁文斐，有了一个跑步比赛，非常好玩儿，可是我输了。比赛以后，我累得要命，还得走下 来，让我很累。在长城上，我买了一瓶冰水，本来他要十块钱，可是我讲价以后才花了五块。

我们来到我 们宿舍的时候，我们洗了澡，然后我和五个好朋友去了后海，吃晚饭，喝酒，什么的。我们去的那家饭馆又贵，又有不周到的服务。我们的服务员真是到现在最难过 和不客气的服务员我认识。我们请她三次，“请问，能不能麻烦您给我们六杯热水，但是她一直没有给我们水。但是是我的生日，所以我告诉我的朋友们，“别担 心，高兴一点儿！”我们吃饭以后去了一个酒吧，可是太贵了，所以我们决定了去五道口玩儿。

在五道口，我们去了一个比较便宜的韩国酒吧，我学会了一些韩国的酒令，然后我们跳舞了。

Last Saturday was my birthday. Therefore, we had no choice but to dance. But first, we went to the Great Wall. We went to a super secluded section of the wall with relatively few people, which was awesome. We spent about three hours on the wall, and it was beautiful. Everyone took about a million pictures, as foreigners (especially white girls) are wont to do. My friend (his Chinese name is Ding Wenfei) and I had a race (it's called running competition in Chinese, which sounds much more exciting) up the steepest part of the wall. I. Died. It was so steep. We were both winded as crap and still had to walk all the way back down, which was another hour. I didn't even win. :'( At the top, I bought ice water from this guy. Most people had been paying 10 yuan, but I talked to him for a bit and haggled it down to 5 yuan. I think he took pity on me for the fact that I looked like my lungs had collapsed and was heaving my last breath. 

When we got back we all showered, and then five friends and I went to this tourist place called houhai to eat. We somehow managed to pick the most expensive restaurant ever, with the RUDEST waitress I've ever seen. I mean seriously, this girl acted like someone punched her in the face every time she smiled, causing her to develop a Pavlovian resting bitch face. Not only did she just walk away while we were ordering twice, but we asked her to bring us water 4 times and every time she just nodded and didn't bring it. Actually the worst. But it was my birthday so I kept saying "don't worry guys, be happy!"

After we ate we went to a bar in houhai. It had a beautiful view of the river and everything but it was way too expensive, so we decided to go to wudaokou, which is the more college student-focused place. We took the subway there, and then the night really began. On the subway I made friends with a random guy who was initially laughing at my Chinese. 

At wudaokou, we went to a Korean bar (three of the people I was with were Korean), played Korean drinking games, and partook in other such frivolity. And finally we danced.

Red Afghan

My #2 Godson sent me a photo of the afghan I made him for his college graduation.  He took the picture in his bedroom.

I think you can see why I chose the colors red and black.

Happy Independence Day! to all my American readers, and to everyone else,

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with yarn.

P.S. I rode 11 miles on the exercise bike at the gym yesterday, and thought my butt was going to kill me.  I could have gone further, though my thighs were burning, but I just couldn't sit on that bike seat (and it was the recumbent one!) for even one more mile.