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i was actually pretty busy with work today, which made the day go by that much quicker. i visited a bunch of different departments, asking them for man hours, material lists, and purchase order prices. i even got a chance to visit ms.yu in the procurement department. nevertheless, by early afternoon i had to drink a cup of coffee to keep myself going. one cup is just enough to stay awake at work but not keep me awake at night.

fengya and i traded snacks. she gave me a chocolate bar and a lollipop, i gave her a pound of roasted chestnuts. she said it was too much, and i ended up offering handfuls to the members of my department before giving the bag back to fengya, only about 1/4 full at that point. roasted chestnuts are pretty delicious and cheap and if i see them for sale again i'll definitely buy some more.

after work yangyi invited the lunchtime crowd to hot pot dinner in the new city. his girlfriend was already at the restaurant and ordered for us beforehand. this was "old hot pot," which meant they reuse the hot oil afterwards. chinese urban legend has it that some of the older hot pot restaurants have been using the same oil for centuries, which i don't believe at all.

some of the guys stopped to buy a bottle of chinese bai jiou at 43% alcohol content. i swore off bai jiou but had a little bit anyway, and was already buzzed after the first sip. it's so strong in fact that you could probably get drunk just sniffing the stuff.

later zhouke (who went with us to chishui 2 weeks ago) and her boyfriend xiaolong showed up.

they had sheep brain, which i never had before, partly because it's one of the rare foods that i find kind of revolting. i've got no problems eating duck feet but sheep brain is where i draw the line! i tried a little bit, it tastes kind of like tofu, except you can't get mad cow disease from eating bean curds.

loren was concerned about getting oil splatter on his clean shirt. this happened when we went out for xuang xuang hot pot. he actually wanted to go home and change, but we convinced him otherwise ("take off your shirt so we can see your chest hairs!" yangyi chided). but sure enough, a few minutes into dinner and he got oil all over his shirt again.

since i don't have any plans for the national holiday week, guo convinced me to go with him, zhouke, and xiaolong to luzhou, fengya's hometown. luzhou is most famous for its bai jiou. we're also going to visit nearby yibin, which is also famous for its bai jiou. basically it's an alcoholic's dream vacation.

i came home and did a load of laundry. i'm leaving for chongqing tomorrow afternoon, so if i don't update my blog for a few days, it's because i don't have wifi access, and not because i've gone missing. i'm supposed to rendezvous with guo and the gang on october 2nd, somewhere in chongqing. i'm heading down to chongqing a few days early to take photos of the mad crush of people going on holiday. if i can't find an affordable hotel, i'll return to changshou and leave with them on the 2nd.