i shaved 3 days worth of beard this morning. facial hair is definitely easier to remove when there's been a few days worth of growth. long stubbles are easier to catch on the blades compared to shorter stubbles.
FY told me she almost called me last night to have dinner but felt too lazy to go out. like me, she went to bed without food, working off the large breakfast and lunch we had on our way back from chishui. plus, i doubt anyone took more vacation photos than i did!
back from the mid-autumn festival holiday, on the bus everyone is sharing vacation stories. some people went to chengdu, some to wulong, my stalker went to hubei. nobody had as good a time as us, especially those who went on a package tour. not only did we see some great sights, but we also ate the best of what chishui (and by extension guizhou) had to offer.
working on a sunday, feels like a monday because of the 3-day holiday. actually just a 1-day holiday, because they're making us work consecutive sundays. it's not enough we just get only a single weekend day; the company has to take that away from us as well. i never seen this before, where your weekend time also belongs to the company for them to shuffle around whenever they need to, like it's some sort of perk. i swear, if it was up to them, we wouldn't have weekends at all, and they'd just work us 7-days a week. they don't even bother asking the employees, management decides and everyone just follows. i have some accrued vacation days i can probably use to break up the 9-day work week into more management chunks, but october 1st begins the week long chinese independence day holiday.
i've decided i want to get a smart phone. i'm probably the only person in all of china who still uses a regular phone. i think if i left it outside, nobody would even bother taking it, it's so lacking in features. i don't think they cost very much and the plans are way cheaper than american contracts, i think i heard something like RMB$80/month. it's just that since i don't use a smart phone back at home, i'm used to not having one. but i can see where it can come in handy. i especially like the idea of being able to photo blog out in the field. no more waiting until i get home to download the photo and write some content! of course i have to find out if these china smartphones can support an english OS. i think they all use some form of android, but i want to know if it's crippled in some way for china usage. my big cousin told me to buy a china smartphone when i got to china. i thought that was an insane idea because i don't need a smartphone, but i'm changing my mind now.
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a large brown praying mantis landed on my desk this morning. at first i thought somebody threw a piece of leaf, but then i realized it was moving. mantises are pretty fearless, and i know they will actually bite if mishandled, so i didn't try holding it. it was crawling on the side of my monitor, then on the phone, then onto the keyboard. after taking some photos, i put it in a pencil holder and released it outside the office. i've seen mantises in the greater boston area but they're pretty rare.
i went with noodles for lunch, didn't like the rice options, needed the carbohydrates to compensate for the lack of dinner last night. i'm slow when it comes to eating rice but fast when i eat noodles. i was done eating before anybody else. what can i say, i like noodles. and when i eat something i like, i can eat it pretty quickly.
i tried to nap after lunch but the air conditioning above my desk area was off so i felt warm and uncomfortable, so i just decided to surf the web, slouched in my chair, until 1:00.
after work i went to the chong bai supermarket to get some breakfast items (eggs and a carton of yogurt drink).
i left the house by 7:30 to go running at the outdoor track field. i told FY about my plans, but she wasn't sure if she'd come, though i was hoping she would. when i got there by 7:40 i didn't see her so i started running. there's a few dozen people on the track, but most of them are walking so it's fun passing them. even the ones running are going pretty slow. it's also weird seeing pretty girls in high heels coming out here to walk a few laps for exercise; the distraction is well appreciated. when i ran last time i didn't feel any pain afterwards. i think all that biking i do back at home has kept my legs pretty strong, making an easy return to running.
by my 4th lap around i saw someone flagging me to get my attention. i was slightly out of breath and panting, but i saw it was FY talking on the phone. she was just walking, and wearing her work clothes. i gestured i was going to go for another lap and took off running. i noticed on my watch timer that it was 10 minutes. 4 laps is about a mile, so that's pretty good time considering i haven't really ran in ages. i ended up doing 2 more laps before i cut across the middle of the field to intercept FY. i asked her if she just arrived, she told me she'd been here since 7:20. i felt a little bad because i was the one who suggested the idea of running and i show up late. we walked around the track for a few more laps, before finally going home, cutting through the gated community where most of our korean coworkers live, a shortcut i never tried before.
after a shower, i did a load of laundry, using the white cat brand liquid detergent for the first time. it has a nice smell, kind of a combination of flowers and fruits, a cleaning fragrance i've never experienced before back in the US.