it was very foggy this morning. i had my hot tea and my one piece of cake. shirley appeared, eating the last of her meat buns. 
she must've been running late, because otherwise she would've already ate at home. i took the medium bus, which gave me a chance to listen to my music while we went to the travel. the driver of the medium bus is kind of reckless. he makes it a personal challenge to beat the other large buses, even speeding and cutting off the big bus without yards of the office entrance. no one seems to be saying anything because i don't think anyone else drives, otherwise they'd know how irresponsible the driver is. i may have to report him.
i was expecting more pain after my first gym visit last night, but there were surprisingly few aches. maybe it hasn't been 24 hours yet. my legs felt fine. the only part that hurt a little bit were my ribs (maybe from doing those handful of inverted crunches) and my triceps felt a little weak, but otherwise in good shape. maybe that'll all change tomorrow though.
lihui was complaining about body aches. i gave him one of the advils i keep in the office. later he told me how amazed he was that his pain was all gone. drugs yay! drugs we take for granted back in the US aren't available here in china. things like allergy medication, pain relief, or even cold drugs can't easily be found here. at best there's one brand that everyone uses. medicine is also a combination of western and chinese. i don't believe in chinese medicine so when i see any medicine with chinese medicine ingredients, i know it's not going to work.
after lunch i did try to force myself to take a nap in the half hour i had left of break. i set my itunes to screen saver mode and closed my eyes listening to music. i didn't fall asleep but came pretty close. i got up 20 minutes later to get ready to go back to work mode.
today at the office they instituted a new daily timesheet. it's to create a paper trail so the company can bill the foreign investors. why now after so many months without timesheets i don't know. but i'm glad i took saturday off when i did, probably the last time we can get away with not working and still get paid. loren was annoyed that they lumped us with the cost control/scheduling department when we should be with contracts. i'm not sure what the difference is. it annoyed him enough that he called the admin who made the timesheet and made her change it. a few hours later she sent out a newly revised timesheet to all the departments.
i must've tried seeing pansusu 6 different times. either he wasn't in his office, or he was in his office but talking with somebody. i even asked SM to help be my lookout since her desk has a good view of his office on the other side of the building. "is he in his office now?" i asked. "yes." "alone?" "no." but then by total coincidence he walked by my desk in the mid-afternoon and i was able to walk and talk with him for less than 30 seconds, but just enough to ask him if he was free thursday night of next week, that it was american thanksgiving, and that i wanted to treat him to peking duck. once i got ahold of him, it was a lot easier than i expected. yes he was free, and yes of course he'd love to have peking duck with me for thanksgiving instead of the traditional turkey (which is a lot harder to find here). so it looks like i will have some sort of thanksgiving after all. what about my plan to invite coworkers out to dinner? that can still happen, but it doesn't have to be next thursday.
by afternoon i had nothing to do. everything that could be done had already been done. nothing to do but wait for mr.lee to return from his vacation tomorrow so he can answer my questions. surprisingly, i wasn't tired. maybe less than half an hour of fake napping was enough to give me the energy i need to finish out the day. maybe i should fake nap more often!
after eating dinner at the office and returning home, i went back to the tailor shop to pick up my pants. it didn't surprise me they were closed, the door shuttered, along with the nearby mahjong parlor. i'll try again tomorrow.
instead i went to the chongbai mall. first i went upstairs to check out the peking duck place. i'm sure pansusu has eaten there before, 
but it's my first time and i wanted to get an idea of what it's about. then i went to the nearby sushi restaurant. they have grilled eel with rice for RMB$35, i may try that next time. plus some relatively cheap sushi.
i then went to the basement level to visit the supermarket to get a few things: soap, vinegar, drinks, and frozen dumplings. i thought i was getting a new flavor but i may have indadvertedly gotten the same thing i got last time. i'll find out when i eat it, which won't be until this weekend unless i decide to skip one of the office dinners. i spied lihui at the supermarket, with this pretty girl i've seen him talking to at the office. i was going to say hello but decided to give them some privacy. earlier at the office he invited me to come out to the chongbai mall with him; i bet he's sort of glad i didn't.
it wasn't a laundry night tonight, so it'll be a quiet evening. it's getting colder in my apartment, 63°F now. i took out the thicker blanket the company issued to all new employees more than a month ago. it might have a 100% wool filling so it should be pretty warm.
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