did anyone do anything today? it was rainy, it was windy, it was cold. not a day for going outside, but rather better to stay indoors. i woke up and was surprised to find zhu lei camped out in the living room. he was so quiet, i almost didn't see him. he had his laptop out and would occasionally watch television but with the sound off and the closed captioning on. i overhead him talking to his girlfriend on the phone (when did he get a phone?). he asked me a bunch of questions today, mostly about cooking, during lunch and dinner. how do i use the rice cooker? how much water should i add to the rice? do you have any sugar? he made a rice porridge in the evening that used too much water. i helped him transfer the content from the rice cooker to a medium pot. i noticed he had added some apple slices, he said it was a recipe he invented.

late into the evening i was waiting for zhu lei to go to bed so i could turn down the heat. what i didn't realize was he'd already gone to bed hours ago, but just didn't turn off the living room light so i thought he was still up. that happens a lot with him actually. yesterday i had to use the bathroom but the light was on inside so i thought he was still in there. turns out he was actually in his room so i waited needlessly for an hour. and then a few days ago i woke up and the kitchen lights were on. turning off the lights after leaving the room, is that such a foreign concept? for the most part he's pretty polite (to the point of being timid) but sometimes he can be inconsiderate without knowing it. he's young enough to be a product of the chinese one-child-per-family generation. i wonder if that has any bearing on how he behaves? i personally think (and this could all be stereotyping on my part) that these single child families produce spoiled children because the kids never have to learn valuable social skills that come with having actual siblings (things like sharing and conflict resolution) and their parents are too lenient and indulgent with them (like not having to do choirs).