i haven't blogged for almost 2 weeks because i was vacationing in sanya all of last week. sanya is located on the southern end of hainan island, which is known as the chinese hawaii. nothing much to do there except endure the hot tropical weather, visit the beaches, and eat a non-stop supply of fresh seafood and fruits.

sanya reminds me of a bunch of places i've visited. certainly taiwan, because of it's tropical island nature, but also of vietnam, where it sits in closer proximity geographically. it also reminds me of cancun, how a lot of businesses are geared towards tourism, from hotels to restaurants to gift shops that sell local specialties, or little stores that carry beach going equipment.

anyway, i hope i have time to go back and fill in the blanks on my sanya vacation, but this entry is for today, of which i didn't do very much.

sunmeng came back last night (monday). a part of me doesn't look forward to her weekday visits because she's always in a terrible mood when she arrives, after having suffered through 1-1/2 hours of rush hour commuting to get here. she has problems channeling her anger so it's often times directed at me, as i have no choice but to listen to her complain incessantly about how bad her commute was. and when she does arrive (typically around 7pm), there are only so many hours left, and we normally have dinner and then she's off to bed by around 10:30pm since she needs to get up the next morning at 6:30am to get ready to commute to work back in changshou.

anyway, she left this morning at 7:15am. i never go back to bed once she's gone, but rather use the time to get an early start on my routine, which is just to use the bathroom and then surf the web until i get hungry and i go out for lunch. mary sent me a wechat text early this morning around 5:50am, hoping that i was having a good time and taking good care of myself. although it seemed innocuous, this was something she's never done before, which made me worried enough that i couldn't go back to sleep. i kept reading her cryptic message, trying to decipher any hidden meanings. was it a suicide note? that's still one of my biggest fears, that she'll kill herself before i get back. i hate it that i still have to deal with her shit while i'm on vacation. any normal roommate would welcome the opportunity to have the place to herself for 2 months, but not mary.

sunmeng called me in the late morning to let me know that our package from sanya had arrived. i went downstairs to pick it up. one thing i never really noticed is the amount of packages and luggages behind the counter. not only is this place a hotel, not only is it the back entrance to the KTV next door, but it's also a temporary storage depository. the package i picked up were all the liquid items banned from our carry-on bags, including some of sunmeng's makeup, a container of baby powder (isn't there some rule against powders? i just added it to be safe), and small jars of hainan hot sauce. the postage was RMB37 but it saved us the RMB80 we would've had to otherwise pay to a piece of shipped luggage.

i was meeting lihui for lunch today at guiyanqiao, after having visited him at bishan yesterday. lihui is notorious for being late so it didn't surprise me when he wrote me at 11:20am saying he just woke up and asked if we could meet later, after lunch, around 1pm. i was fine with the delay, gave me a chance to do some laundry on this particularly good laundry day, with the chongqing weather being hot and dry for the next few days. i couldn't decide on where to get lunch, so i decided to eat in, buying some egg tarts (RMB4 for 4) and some dongbei bread (RMB6 for 3).

when i got back home the housekeeper was cleaning the room next to mine. since there wasn't much to clean in my room, i just dumped the trash, got a fresh supply of towels, and said i didn't need anything else. that meant i had the room to myself for the whole day and didn't have to worry about housekeeping coming by later to clean the room (which is typical between 2-5pm, so that's when i usually leave to go out).

it didn't surprise me when lihui contacted me around 1pm asking if we could reschedule, because he was suffering from diarrhea after having gone out for hot pot last night. i can totally relate, and told him it was okay to meet another time.

i spent the early afternoon eating from bed and watching shows on my computer. i felt sleepy around 2pm so decided to take a nap. i must've been really tired because i didn't wake up until 6pm.

i debated whether to go into guanyinqiao and look for some dinner at the food court. in the end i decided to keep it lowkey and just eat instant noodle in my hotel room. i still went out to the supermarket uphill from here to get some pickled garlic, some chicken gizzards, and some mangoes. returning to the hotel, i got off at the 4th floor to check up on my laundry. everything was already dry so i took them off the line.

it felt a little weird having done nothing today. i was hoping to write some blog entries but i didn't even do that. it was just a lazy day of nothingness, which i think i deserve, having been out doing stuff practically every day since i arrived in china.