I should have invested in Bounty. With the quantity of tissues I consumed over the past week, they should expect record earnings this quarter.

Caught a bit of a cold. While I worked as usual ("usual" meaning "I went to work as usual," not implying "I worked as well as usual") I crashed on my couch between teaching appointments. Luckily Michael had some happy pills from Albertsons he had stocked up on, which helped lessen the symptoms.

While I'm not a fan of being sick because of the accompanying sympathy and dependancy, it was touching to see those that went out of their way to aid me. Joe, a student, brought by oranges and pears to help with my throat. Lydia, a girl I met at English Corner, gave me wake up calls before my classes and brought me soup and dumplings. Awwwwwww.

Gettin' our Gambay on

I had the great privilege of attending Helena's wedding party last night. I was very impressed; the Chinese are very frugal people, but at celebrations like this, no expense is spared.

We were seated at a table with other Babel friends, and I watched as dish after dish came out - turtle, lobster, duck, shrimp, roast, soup, vegetables, meat, fruit, vegetables, meat...I couldn't possibly name them all, but the picture below - yes, that was our table overflowing with food.

Our Feast ...The Newlyweds

Helena was gorgeous. She was initially in a white wedding dress and than changed into a red dress with a modern cut but more traditional style look. One of the girls at my table mentioned that this is her one night to be a "super star" - and that she was. She could have passed for a movie star. Everyone agreed she looked simply stunning.

Her husband is a very funny, charming guy. Yet I felt sorry for him that night: After some picture taking on the stage area (drinking from each others' wine glasses, cutting the cake, etc), the couple went to each table, greeting and thanking each individual guest. The poor groom topped off and drained a glass of wine or beer with every male...and some of the drinks, I was told by Michael, had some extremely potent alcohol content. The guy must have been totally smashed by the second table, and there were a lot of tables. Not to mention all the toasting, where again, glasses raised and emptied.

I was in a bit of an awkward position when my time came to stand and drink up - and light up too. Helena would hand each male a cigarette and light it for him as a celebratory gesture...my declining of the cigarette apparently was not very polite (I guess I should have accepted it and just held it without lighting up - but hey, its difficult to be very tactful when you don't know the language or culture). I got through the toasting with the groom with my Cola, although they didn't understand why I wouldn't take even a smidgen of wine in it for the occasion. For the table-wide toast, the maid of honor managed to sneak some wine in my glass, so I had to sort of fake-drink it. Which was really too bad, because I got thirsty, and later some other men wanted to toast with me, and I had to keep pretending to drink my polluted cola.

But if I offended the groom, chances are he won't be remembering it. I kind of wonder what he will be remembering. Its a good thing they took lots of pictures.

I even got my own pack of cigarettes to take home with me. My first box. High quality. I'm really not sure what to do with it.

Finally, some real Chinese lessons

Tonight I began going to the Chinese language class my company puts on for foreign teachers (and I get it free!). Its a little advanced for me, but I think I can catch up; at any rate, it's providing great motivation and focus for my personal study of the language.

All the members of the class could have been easily from the States - so I was surprised to find out afterwards that I was the only American. It was great to get connected with other foreigners and English speakers; for example, this Tuesday, the Canadian girl invited us out to a 5K run around the lake with a pasta dinner afterwards.

After the class I decided to bike around town, which led to me wandering down streets late at night I wasn't familiar with, which led me to almost getting completely lost, which led me to appreciate the fact that I feel safer in a downtown area in China than I do at home. I eventually found my way home, but I came close to wandering out of the circumference of familiar and navigable territory - and honestly, most city streets just end up looking the same. So no dramatic ending (although I found out later my cell phone was out of minutes, so I really would have been in trouble). But it was a great night and it just felt good to ride around solo, aimless, free, and contemplative. I think I don't do that enough.

Watching - We Will Become Silhouettes. Jared Hess (director of one of my fav movies) directed this music video for The Postal Service (one of my fav groups). Postal Service, by the way, really really needs to put together another full length. I hope they are reading this. Anyway, click here (its near the bottom of their page) to check it out. All I can think of are those painfully outdated church videos you used to watch in seminary. Family home evening with the food storage - hits pretty close to home. I just wonder what the Postal Service guys thought of the whole thing.