3rd weekend in Tianjin

Yesterday is hard to remember. I'm not sure why. After a few minutes I finally remembered how the day started. How odd.
I started the day still recovering from the night before; and by recovering I mean from food, not drink. For some reason I had trouble sleeping. I stayed up late talking to Cyndi and Mom, and still woke up at quarter after 6. Since I couldn't get back to sleep and still had 2 1/2 hours before we would go get cell phones, I spent the majority of that time writing the massively long blog updating everyone to the rest of my week. Finally 8:45 rolls around and it's time to head out. We (everyone except for Samuel who is feeling a little under the weather) start heading to get SIM cards. We meet up with Maiem (not sure on how to spell that), a friend of Samuel's who lives here in Tianjin. Although Kyle can speak very good Chinese, we asked Maiem to get the SIM cards set up for us. It didn't take a great amount of time to get that all set up, so afterwards Anna took me to get a cell phone for my SIM card, Kyle, Charise and Damon went to get groceries then back to the hotel, and Maiem biked off to meet someone for lunch. Anna and I cruised the cell phones for a bit and finally found the cheapest phone this place had 299 yuan($50). Didn't have much of a choice since the next cheapest was 599 yuan. Okay, I'll take it. I think it was pushing 9:30, 10:00. Since we missed breakfast at the hotel and it is one of Anna's rituals, we went to McDonalds for breakfast. The nice thing about McDonalds is that they have an allergy listing online. I know egg-xactly (get it egg... hahaha, god sometimes I amuse myself) what I can eat, and more importantly, what I can't. We were enjoying our McD's when all of a sudden, the menu boards switched over for lunch. It's 10 am! I don't know but that to me is a little early for a Big Mac or a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese-don't actually know if they have that one here. Anna ran up to get some past minute breakfast items for Samuel then we headed back to the hotel.
We had a couple other plans for the day, but some time between then and now. I got online and chatted with Mom and Dad for a little bit, then it was off to the Fruit and Veggie market and after tha, popcorn chicken from a local vendor. It's pretty darn good and so far I've been able to eat it without feeling sick. Kyle and Charise wanted to go check out the flea market quickly before the all the ladies were to meet up with Maiem at a local flea market. The other three of us just went back to the hotel. As we were walking I noticed a shoppe that looked to be a pharmacy. Sure enough, it was! My sinus/ear has felt clogged since I got here, so I wanted to see if I could find some nasal spray of some kind. We got in and started looking around. Within 30 seconds someone was there to help. Through a series of gestures, scribbles, and written word we finally got the idea across to the phramacist. I now have some crazy intense nose spray, probably with steroids, that works really well but I'm afraid to use it too often.
By the time we got back to the hotel we only had 30 mins to eat and get ready to go back out. I tell you what, all of us were dragging. Still, we hopped in a cab and met up with Maiem and her friend a couple blocks away. Within minutes of walking into this crazy, find anything you'll ever need market, we found a purse stand. Anna and I picked up the same purse with different print, lol. Why not? We were able to knock off a couple yuan by getting two. 35 yuan a piece, roughly $7. Wholly crap that's cheap! I finally just did the math... boy I'm slow.
We spent the next four hours or so walking around in a daze. There is soooo much stuff at this place it is overwhelming! Plus, the weather was just chilly enough to sap energy if you weren't properly dressed. I wasn't. It is no longer t-shirt weather for me. Maybe 15 mins before we left, we came across a man selling iPod earphones. I don't know why I could just buy anything. Pretty sure they all would have worked, but he handed me a pair and I paid for them. Did the quick math: $5, 30 yuan. Whatever. I was too tired to care. Once we got back to the enterance we decided to call it quits. The three Americans were no longer in a shopping mood so we went home while the two Chinese stayed and finished out the market.
I was hoping once we got back to lie down for a bit. However, after 10 mins or so, Anna and Samuel knocked and drug me off to the grocery store with them. We all knew if we sat down for too long none of us would be able to get up later. So, off to the store we went, came home, dropped our goodies and promptly went out to dinner. We were so lackluster that we took a cab four blocks. lol. Good lord! However, after a nice dish of Korean Bulgolgi (again spelling)-hamburger and rice-we did manage to walk back. Then it was lights out.
I slept for 11 hours. I couldn't believe how tired I was, and still was when I woke up. I got online again (as you've probably figured out by now I'm on quite often) struck up a conversation with a friend from high school, and when that was over went downstairs for a nice, safe Korean breakfast. By the time I got back the maids were making their rounds. I figured it's always easier if I'm out of the way when they tidy up.
I wasn't planning on going for a long walk, but I ended up walking for an hour. It definitely didn't feel like that, so I'll probably do it again in the near future. It was kinda fun to see all the Chinese flags up everywhere for the National Holiday-which offical begins on the 1st. I also walked a few places I hadn't been before. I was still in the same area but I stumbled across a little living community tucked away between multiple businesses and a factory/distributor of sorts. There was only one entrance on to a main drag, but when I got back into it, it was like its own little world. I realize that one of my problems here is that it is far too noisy for me. EVERYONE here honks. They drive so crazily that they honk to let the other drivers know that they are coming up and passing them. And passing other drives, between cars straddling two lines is normal here. Uh huh. Pretty nuts yet no one gets angry. Amazing. Anyway, this little community gave me a (however brief) chance to relax a bit.
I wasn't expecting anyone to be online when I got back, but a classmate from school was on... in Vietnam. This Skype thing is pretty sweet! First chatting with Ginger in Chili then Becca in 'Nam. Turns out she's coming to Beijing in Oct. for a Fullbright conference. How cool is it that we're just going to casually meet up in China. Ha! Nothing casual about it. We get so many stares as it is. It's a pretty big ordeal when we go out. Turns out she also dyed her hair darker. Great conversation since we're both going through roughly the same thing right now... "What the heck are we doing in Asia?!"
After that my day was a lot of horizontal-reading the back of my eyelids. I did actually read, but I also attempted to take a couple of naps. I felt more rested afterwards regardless of how much sleeping I actually did.
I decided on pizza since it was right down stairs and joined Anna and Samuel in their room to watch August Rush. What a good movie; very uplifting. Watching that made me realize how much I miss music. I would really like to sit down at a piano and plunk something out right now. I'm sure it wouldn't be pretty, but my voice is so out of shape that it would probably be easier.
I've been listening to Classical all day today. Not sure what got into me, but it felt right.
Well, some of you know this and some of you don't. My grandfather passed away two days after I got here. This weekend my whole family is together giving him the beautiful Veterans memorial service he deserves. Being away from home is always trying, but my goodness, being away when a family member passes away is darn right hard! I can't say that I didn't try to prep myself for it, but trying to explore a new country and having that nagging knowledge in the back of your mind knowing that your grandfather isn't going to be there when you get back, plus missing the service and the support of family is probably why I haven't been feeling as rested as I would like. Everyday is a little better than the last and I keep sending out positive thoughts :)
I also got a package from home today with lots of allergy meds and extra goodies without egg! I'm very excited to be able to read the label, even though I know mom and dad wouldn't send me anything with egg in it. It's still nice to be able to check myself without the help of an interpretur.
Well, I think that is all for now. Don't know if I've forgotten anything, but it will have to do.