I just ate a dog, probably a really dirty one from out of a hutong. When in Rome.

Yes, that is right. I kid you not, sorry Charlie (that's funny because my dog's name is Charlie). Actually, I ate the poor thing a few days ago, ya know, casual Wednesday night activity. I felt the need to spice things up. I'll be honest; I was down, out, and for the first time in the 8 months that I have been here, was feeling a little homesick. I had one of those 'rock bottom' type moments, where you sit down, go through a period of self-reflection, assess your current situation, and decide how you want to go on. 3 days later, I am feeling quite alright, I can only say thanks to man's best friend for starting this upswing. So after my exams we had a period of vacation, which was fun but not fulfilling. I came out of the weekend just sorta low. I have one clear goal here, well two actually. 1) learn chinese 2) get a job to keep learning chinese. Well neither of those situations is quite where I want them to be right now. I don't have a job and I can always learn more Chinese.

Thus I have been making a push to spend more time with Chinese folk. There are some other activities I have been doing too, like buying chinese pop culture tv series, signing up for chinese state run microblog websites, chinese youtube (literal translation - potato web), and QQ. When in rome, but that's not the point. Sooo anyways, Wednesday night I met a friend of mine and we decided to go for Korean. It was an unfamiliar restaurant and the menu was highlight by stir-fried dog with sichuan peppers. In what situation are you feeling more adventurous than a casual Wednesday night? Honestly, life here is different because I don't have great friends (i.e. Lucas, Svet, lil Joey - man I wish someone would slap me then pour a beer on themself to motivate me sometimes..hmmmm) pushing me to do stupid things, which means, I have to do stupid things myself. I actually miss peer pressure. The dog was, suprisingly, not good at all. It was soft, oily, and perhaps undercooked. I did indeed have the hot stomach later that night.

Anyways after I got back to my room, I was finally able to establish my VPN again, thanks to Travis ;-). Going on facebook, getting back to my twitter account, and writing my blog was like someone took an adrenaline needle and stabbed my liver. Why my liver you ask? Because my ability to process alcohol has been at an unprecedented level these past three nights. Of course I was so invigorated I had to go to the Wednesday night special, 50rmb ($8) open bar at the famous Sensations club, only the watering hole where all the most awesome safari animals come to hunt and be hunted. I then followed up a dirt cheap night with one of those, let's treat myself well type nights and get a bottle at an awesome club downtown type night, and last night settled for the middle with a delicious plate of french toast and pancakes at 4:45 this morning. Okay so they weren't delicious, but like you know, at 4:45 am everything is delicious.

I had a 4 day weekend last weekend, skipped all classes on Thursday and Friday due to hangovers (sorry mom and dad), and effectively have another 4 day week right now, AND I still have Saturday night tonight plus the Pacquiao-Mosley fight tomorrow morning. I know some of you may be thinking, "what is he doing with his life", so let me hit you with some knowledge. I have discovered the best cure for homesickness. The best cure for homesickness is to be awesome. Go and do something awesome. Make the place you are as much fun as possible, and you won't feel so far away anymore. When I was home hangin out in the Escalade with Ein and Svet rollin up to BWI to go see everyone for the weekend, I had some uneasy feelings. I had been away for so long, and had NO idea what was going on in their world, but simultaneously I felt that I had never left. That's something special, and it won't be years until I find something like that here in China. So, the only real solution is to just take some time to treat yourself right and make sure everythings fine. The Chinese have this word '心理' which is often used when describe your state of being, it literally means heart-inside. Well, mine is good now. I am no longer feeling homesick, instead I'm ready to watch some awful Chinese soap operas to improve my Mandarin. When in Rome.

Long distance high five...from China!