i went to bed at almost 2:30 last night. it's like i'm regressing back to my old ways of staying up late, except back at home i can sleep late, while here in china i'm forced to wake up at 6:30 to get ready for work.

* shampoo change results

* i just want to work on my blog posts!

* work on sunday

* quiet office

* single bus to work

* sim card, google maps working with gps, jd.com stuff arriving too

* talking with the drivers and chehong, taking turns asking me questions

* dinner with the contract department: xianglian, mahui, wang, and new guy; wang won a gift card in the new year ceremony raffle and wanted to treat everyone to dinner. i was only there because xianglian invited me. i discovered mahui is also a tiger in chinese astrology, which is exactly 12 years longer than me.

i sat next to XL on the bus. when i told her i was just going to go home and have some rice porridge, she invited me to go with her for some 酸辣粉 (sour spicy rice noodles). her coworker wang was treating (he was one of the 2nd prize drawing winners at the chinese new year banquet), but she said he wouldn't mind. i was a little hesitant, but this would be a great way for me to hitch myself to their department (which, i must remind you, i'm technically a member of since i fill out my timesheet with them). so when we got back into town, i followed XL. we ended up going to this little shop on the opposite side of the mall, next to the spicy duck parts dispensary. wang was already waiting there as XL surprised him with my addition. he seemed very happy to have me, as i'd already plied him with lavish praises everytime i received some contract documents from him. we wait for mahui, who arrived with that new guy who joined their department. the new guy had only been working there for a month. when he asked me where i was from (he'd already heard i was from america), that opened up a length conversation. i asked him if he was single, he said yes, but XL interjected and said he already have a long-term girlfriend and was soon to be engaged. he then asked my age, which drew chuckles from XL. "guess," i told him, then finally revealed it'd turn 40 in a few more weeks.

afterwards mahui disappeared to run some errands while the 4 of us walked to yonghui supermarket, about 10 minutes away. i was checking out smoked cured pork prices. they seemed a little expensive, so i wanted to try some few other different supermarkets first before finally deciding. while wang and the new guy walked in one direction, XL and i walked together to our respective apartments.