Got Chocolate?

Last night, I went over to my friend (former dictionary) Moon’s apartment to watch a movie with him. I originally planned to have him watch the classic, The Notebook (a girl’s best friend), but only got through 10 minutes before we got caught up talking about everything and stopped watching, haha. He always so interested in talking about cultural differences, or how to say something in english. It’s common for him to stop us in the middle of our (Chinese) conversation because he wants me to translate a phrase I just used into English. The funny thing is, I can’t do it half of the time, the main reason is because Chinese phrases translated into English are just strange sometimes, like when a friend is leaving you, would we tell them to “Walk slowly”? Well in Chinese we would, haha. I plan on doing a whole post about Chinese translated into English, some phrases are just hilarious. We talked for a while, then I found out that Moon had never seen a musical movie. He doesn’t even know the genre name in Chinese, China must be crazy, how can there be no musicals…it’s a shame, I was raised on those things. So, to remedy his misfortune, I changed the movie from The Notebook to Hairspray. He was enthralled from the very beginning, we actually got through an hour and a half of it before we got distracted again.

I named this post, Got Chocolate? for a reason: during our conversations, Moon kept talking about how beautiful my skin complexion is. I felt flattered of course, then I noticed that during the movie (Hairspray), he would always talk about the pretty black girls. In my mind, I realized, “Oh my goodness, this man needs some chocolate in his life.” I mean of course, who doesn’t need chocolate, right? He even asked me if I knew any black girls (that look like me) here in China that I could introduce to him. That is the third time a Chinese man has asked me that, of course it was always followed up before with them trying to get with me, but with Moon it’s different, haha. I understand his frustrations, he’s only ever dated Asian women, I guess he wants to change things up a bit, but he says he feels shy talking to foreign (black) women because the world view of Asian men is very low. I told him that it doesn’t matter, my life motto is it doesn’t matter if the man likes dating “outside of his race” it only matters if he will like me. Not to mention that I have dated or “talked” with every color of man, though for the last two years it has only been Asians…not on purpose but it just turned out that way.

Sidenote: It is really weird, I don’t know why but a lot of Chinese people (and some Africans) have asked me if I am mixed. I am not that light and I have dark brown eyes/hair, as you can guess I’ve never gotten asked that before in my life, so I think it is really funny. Literally, Dictionary 2 asked me if my Grandfather (yes, he was that specific) was white. Another time, an African man took a look at my afro and thought it wasn’t “kinky” enough to make me pure black, I laughed in his face.

New Years Wasted

My New Year’s Eve went very well, in most ways. Let me recount: After posting my last blog post of 2011 (tear), I got ready and went to the International Department’s New Year’s banquet. I had to arrive thirty minutes early to do the Kuaiban lines that Mrs. Luan gave me that morning. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, they even had someone holding the script for me, so there wasn’t any pressure. Everyone stood in a group while I started my lines about what a great department they are, it was funny (there was a line about how the women are as beautiful as flowers), then when I stopped they said a few “Happy New Year” lines. It’s for a video that will be posted on their website (I will NOT be looking that up, though). Then we retired to the next room, I sat beside an older white man, he is an English teacher here at Nankai, and I met his lovely little Chimerican daughter (he called her that not me, haha). As you might have guessed, her mother is Chinese, so she has dual Chinese and American citizenship, I thought that that was impossible, but I guess not. She is almost two, and so adorable, she speaks a blend of English and Chinese, she’s doesn’t realize yet that they are two different languages. I also met the President of Nankai, he was very nice, and another American English teacher. He is black and from New York, he held on to my hand for a very long time during our handshake, and I’m pretty sure he’s interested in me. He seems nice enough but I could never see myself dating an adult, and by adult I mean someone with an actual career and in their thirties, haha. After dinner, I jokingly told my Portuguese friends about my plans to get “New Year’s” wasted, it’s my special play on “white-girl” wasted. I’ve never been able to really party on New Year’s Eve (my mom is a super strict Haitian parent, enough said), so I was excited and ready to start my New Years wasted plan. All of my friends were going to restaurants first, but since I had already eaten I went straight to Helen’s.

I love the workers there, they all know me and whenever I walk in they are so excited/cute. I got free beers right away and got to work. In the spirit of starting things new and fresh, I even acknowledged Xiaolong, I told him that I was sorry I couldn’t return his ring because I lost it, he said it was ok…A short exchange I know, but better than me punching him and telling him how unmanly I think he is (the alternative). Brandon is back working, and I found out his phone got lost so he never received my texts and wasn’t able to text me either! Gosh, I’m in love, though it’s wrong like the co-worker, I know. He works as a waiter instead of a bartender now, so I got to watch him run around taking orders, and drooled over his muscular forearms as he lifted plates. Also whenever he would see me he would put his hand on my lower back, he also blinks in a really adorable way. Ok, I’m done daydreaming now, sorry that you guys had to witness this, haha. If only he would let me rape him….

Back on track! My Spanish friend who did the competition with me came over and we met up with two of my Ukrainian friends. One of whom has pretty, green eyes, I forget his name (It’s difficult) so I shall call him green eyes. I’m pretty sure I mentioned him before; I had planned to kiss him one night but didn’t go through with it? Well we were back to flirting across a table, and I considered it again, but decided against it. I am staying away from boys for 2012 right? And also I was too enthralled by my beloved Brandon, haha. We did the New Year’s countdown at Helen’s, my first hug of 2012 was this crazy Chinese guy, he’s very goofy and always at Helen’s. After A LOT of drinks, we said our goodbyes and went over to Apple, a club that is next to the famous Tianjin TV tower. Apparently, I had an entire text conversation with Moon telling him to go to Apple, he called while I was still at Helen’s saying he’d arrived, I felt really guilty (I forced him out of bed), so hightailed it to Apple.

By the time I arrived, he already got a table and bought a bunch of drinks. I drank some more, there was a lot of dancing, and I vaguely remember breaking it down (American/Caribbean style) on Green Eyes (his friend kept pushing us together). Then, I went back to Moon’s table, drank EVEN more and started dancing with this very cute Chinese or Korean guy….I’m pretty sure he was Chinese but looked Korean. Heck, maybe he wasn’t even cute, by that point it was safe to say that I was New Year’s wasted. My Russian friend’s decided to go to XiTang instead. I happily went along, but my memory of how we got there is pretty foggy, it’s my first time not remembering what happened while drunk clearly. My memory just jumped to being in Xitang, I didn’t even really dance because the drinks hit me hard and one of my friends had to drag bring me home. I’m pretty sure there were tears on my part, I always feel really bad when someone has to leave “early” (it was probably already 5 am) to bring me home, so I cry. So embarrassing, thank God that’s only happened twice in my life! By the way, sorry Avi, haha. When I got back to my room I vaguely remember throwing up (ew), washing up and going to sleep. It was a fun night but I will never get New Year’s wasted again!

Moon called me around 2pm to ask how I got home and if I was alright (I took off without telling him last night). We are planning to take it easy the next fews days, so no bars for us. We are going to watch the Notebook tonight 🙂

Happily Single

I realized that I left things on kind of a cliff hanger with the last post, what with me heading over to Moon’s and all. But I just need to say that things just wouldn’t click with us two. So I know for sure that I wouldn’t want to date him. He’s a very nice guy and all, but he plays the guitar and sings….while looking at me. I know some girls find that very romantic, and love that sort of thing, but I was born without that bone in my body. Things like having a man stare deeply into your eyes, or hold your hand and tell you how beautiful you are make me laugh. But he clearly is into those kinds of things, he’s going to make me a mix tape (well CD) of his music for when I go back to America, it’s sweet but not my style. As of now, my dictionary search is officially being called off; I gave it a valiant effort, but for now I am happy being single and not tied down. Though, to be honest I do want to sexually assault the new Helen’s worker sometimes…oh if he would only give me one night! Even though I am a virgin 😛

Sidenote: Xiaolong is back to working the night shifts at Helen’s, I pretend he doesn’t matter at all. Just the polite “hi” and “bye” for him, while I am still just as friendly with everyone else. Also, two nights ago he saw when Moon had his arm around me, I took pleasure in his discomfort~~ (Evil Grin)

Butterflies

Ok, I’m feeling antsy. Moon just called and so apparently isn’t mad at me, though I assumed he was because this was the first time in two weeks that he hadn’t called everyday. I’m going over to his place to watch a movie, so I guess I will know for sure where we stand after tonight? I’m not even sure where I want this to go, so I hope things work themselves out. Gosh, now I have to go and make myself pretty, the pains of being a woman.

Stood Up Dates and Christmas Mates

Watching the Glee Christmas episode as I write this post…love that show!

But anyways, Merry Christmas! I love this season, growing up in Boston, it was snow, dark nights, egg nog, classic movies like Jack Frost, The Scrooge, and The Grinch (oh, how I miss them!), family dinners…..sigh. Christmas in China is different, I’m going to appreciate it more next year, chock full of American traditions, haha. Regardless, I had a very merry Christmas Eve. Yesterday, reporters from Tianjin TV station came to bother me again, another interview, they followed me around for the last two days basically, I am so not going to be bullied into this again…the “famous” life is not for me. I went to Walmart afterwards to buy ingredients to cook Christmas dinner at our “older” friend’s home. Unfortunately, the only dishes I can make are VERY American and ingredients are hard to come by in the middle of China. I’m talking cheese, pastas, salsa, etc. So, I gave up and bought a few bags of lamb and chicken to make. Our friends had the table set up already and we all (Avi, two married couples, one 5 year daughter, our two Russian friends and I) ate for hours and watched a movie as well. We also fit in a few Christmas songs! Not a bad way to spend Christmas Eve.

The only bad part of the day was realizing that Moon (Dictionary 3 who has been calling all of the time) had asked me on a date. Ok, let me go back to the day before yesterday to explain. On Friday, the Chinese department had an end of the semester ceremony; every Chinese class had to do a group performance. Ours went really well, the crowd loved it, I am so proud of the choreography (made by yours truly) that I will upload the video onto YouTube as soon as I can in Hong Kong and post up a link. Later that night, we had a “last supper” of sorts, we all went to a fabulous dumpling restaurant, exchanged Christmas cards, and said a final farewell. I then ran over to the party the Chinese language contestants were having at a bar across town, The Basement.  Our dinner ran over time, so when I walked in everyone yelled, “Finally, Ms. Celebrity has arrived!” Moon was there as well (he’s one of the managers there) but took forever to sit with me and my friends. He gets surprisingly shy around people he doesn’t know, it’s surprising because he performs on stage all of the time and can do basic break dancing. His personality is so out there that I forget his shyness sometimes. He had his arm around me as we sat but I didn’t think anything about it. After a while he turned to me and said, “Marsha, you are really cute”..I laughed it off, but he said it again very seriously. I thought, “Is he trying to confess?” But ignored it, because I don’t know if I want to be in a relationship. Then he left while my friends and I stayed behind. We took over the sound system and got crunk to many songs, I love those guys, we weren’t even drunk and everyone still danced all out. I hope we can meet up like that very often for this vacation.

Anyways, I then went to Xitang to go dancing. I knew Moon would be there, but didn’t think too much about it. When I arrived, he started doing things like holding my hand and being very attentive. He also started jumping around and calling me his girl/baby, I laughed and I’m touchy-feely so I didn’t mind. I was surprised, though, when we sat down he asked, “So does this mean you accept (me)?” I didn’t know how to respond, so I said, “Maybe?”…He took that badly and spent the night dancing with some other girl (who I later found out was a girlfriend of his friend and he was helping since she was drunk). Regardless, I got jealous, so I danced around with a bunch of people, which I regretted later, because they still keep calling. Avi actually scared one off for me, hilarious. When we were leaving around 6am, Moon could tell that I wasn’t happy, so he asked why I was mad. I told him since I came to Xitang specifically for him (a lie but he didn’t know) he should have paid more attention. He kept apologizing and hugging me, but I stayed kind of cold. He then asked e on a date for the next day (Christmas Eve), but I was tipsy and I heard only that he would call that day. So when he called yesterday asking when we should meet up, he was not happy that I already made other plans. I think he is still mad, this is the first day that he hasn’t called or texted….I didn’t mean to stand him up though, so I’m not going to apologize full out. Once again, I am confused about a guy. I just need to swear off men for life, it’s about that time, don’t you think?

Confusing Situation

I am so backed up on school work it is insane, I have been running around thanks to this competition. Not to mention next week, on top of four huge finals and the competition Tuesday, we have to prepare a class performance for the end of the semester show on the 23rd. I barely am able to come to class anymore, but I still have to manage the performance since I am Class Monitor, and therefore should be a leader. We decided to do a funny upbeat song basically called, Happy to Be Poor (穷开心). During class on Monday, I separated verses and parts and gave each person who wanted a solo their chance to shine. We met this past Friday to practice and get the choreography down, I actually was quite satisfied with myself, did the whole thing in two hours and it will be funny/entertaining if done right. I won’t be able to go to class again until Wednesday but it’s enough tome to check on progress and help with stage directions for Friday. Also, I have to organize the last class meal and presents for all three teachers…I hate my life sometimes.  I’m so tired and can’t wait for this week from hell to be over. Vacation can not come too quickly!

Other than school and competition stuff, my everyday life is becoming more and more complicated as well. A new worker arrived at Helen’s last week (OMG I swear I have a life outside of this place guys, it’s just all of the funny, blog worthy things happen there), and he is so cute, tall, and nice. He’s working at Helen’s until Chinese New Year’s so that he can buy presents for his parents, and he is so shy. Not to mention a student. But of course, I can never even flirt with him because I will just look loose and lose all of the workers respect…maybe. Regardless, I am not going to be that girl. I gave him an english name the first night I met him, so he shall be called Brandon from now on. Thankfully, Xiaolong works day shifts at Helen’s now instead of night, because I really don’t want to see his face, or make the effort of ignoring him. The same night I met Brandon, I felt guilty about my less than innocent thoughts, so I called him, he didn’t pick up but I woke up the next day with a really sweet text message from him. So I felt slightly mollified. That is until I decided to test him on his “I’m going to text more” proclamation, so I haven’t texted him since Monday night, lo and behold, no texts or calls from Mr. Xiaolong. A week is way too long and he is history in my book. Someone who has texted and/or called everyday is actually Dictionary 3, the one who reminds me of the lead singer from Farenheit, popular Taiwanese boy band. I don’t think a day has gone by where we haven’t seen each other this week, we watched a movie in my room, had dinner, went to a coffee shop, etc. But he has not made any untoward moves or tried to hold hands, so I’m confused if he’s trying to be a REALLY good friend, or if I’m being courted. I’m not even sure I want to be courted, I’m kind of sick of men….they add unnecessary drama. Well I will keep you guys posted~

Awkward Night Out

To explain this awkwardness, I have to go back and explain where things are with me and Xiaolong now. The answer: still unclear, but not as bad as I thought? Thursday night, after spending the day filming that music video, I got back to our dorms around 6pm. At that time I called Avi and he said that a group of classmates was going to Helen’s to eat dinner. I readily agreed, changed clothes, and went out as well. At that point, Xiaolong had not answered my “Are you mad at me?” text, I felt mad myself. As I saw it, there were only two possibilities: (1) his cell phone got stolen, (2) he didn’t have the balls to text “maybe it’s better not to date, let’s be friends instead”. I found the possibility of option one to be very small, so I went to Helen’s with my “ignore him” game face on. Unfortunately, it was not a busy night; there were only 4 other tables besides us, so the first thing I see as I walk in is his face. He came over and hugged me hello, I acted totally cool and nonchalant the whole time, we talked a little about our days and that was it. After we sat down, ordered food, and ate it though, my anger began to simmer. I really liked him so I wanted to still be friends, but I’m not the type of person who can ignore the pink elephant in a tiny room. Whenever he would walk by me to take orders or serve food, the tension was palpable; also, sometimes I would look over and see him looking at me. So around 9pm, he was sitting at a table by himself and doing the whole looking at me thing again, so I took the opportunity to confront the situation.

Me: I don’t want things to be awkward, so I’m just going to say it, would it have been so hard to text back? I would understand the, “let’s be friends” thing.

Him: I didn’t text because I didn’t know what I wanted either

Then we started talking about normal things, like what’s been going on in our lives for the last few days, even joked around a little bit. The whole time, though, he kept looking at me with those puppy dog eyes, so annoying. He asked me what made me mad to start with, I started with his lack of communication. He asked if I liked phone calls or texting more (texting), so he promised to start texting more often. He then asked which one of my friends suggested that I delete his number, he assumed that it was Patrick (he thinks Patrick wants to kind of get with me) but I explained that it wasn’t and it was just because he didn’t pay that much attention to me that night that I doubted his intentions, therefore I listened to my friend. He was also glad to hear that I was staying in Chin for the winter break. Then at the end, I said, “I’m glad we could work things out, we will be great friends”. His response: “Are you sure you just want to be friends? You won’t reconsider dating?” He definitely is not going to get out of the dog house that easily, I told him he had to shape up and then I would consider. So throughout the night, he would come up and talk to me randomly, he kept asking if I still liked him and if we had a chance, to which my response was a continual, “Maybe”. I’m not trying to play games or anything, I just want to see what he will do, if he doesn’t set up a date within the next week, he’s over.

He went to eat in the kitchen with the other staff; I was bored at this point, so I went to a table with two Chinese guys and just started a conversation about the dice game they were playing. I sat with them and they began teaching me how to play. Sometime later, Xiaolong got done eating and came around, he watched us suspiciously for a little bit but didn’t interfere. After maybe 10 minutes he came over to “help” me learn how to play, but in actuality he came over to put his arm around me and probably make it clear to the other guys not to try something. I’m a very independent female, but I enjoyed the show nonetheless. In the end, we talked some more, and he walked me back home around 3. I thought he was going to try for a goodnight kiss for a second (which would have totally turned me off, because I just semi-forgave him), but he was respectful the whole time. He not only walked me to my building, but up the three flights of stairs to my room too, then we hugged goodbye.

The true awkwardness occurred Friday (yesterday) night, I walked into Helen’s for a friend’s going away party to run into Dictionary 2. I didn’t blog about him before so let me give a brief summary. I met him at a Halloween Party, he’s a music major focusing on hip-hop, his free-style raps are insanely good, and we went on one kind of date (which ended in a kiss….so embarrassing). The second I walked in he was all over me, making me sit at their table, giving me drinks, making kissy faces, the whole kit and caboodle. I usually don’t mind flirting, but the fact that I still haven’t allowed Xiaolong a kiss (I know he wouldn’t have minded one the night before) and suddenly there was a guy who I did kiss in the same room was very awkward for me. Of course, I would never admit to Xiaolong that we went on a date, that’s on a need to know basis. But Xiaolong’s co-workers seeing another guy with his arm around me was not a very good thing, so I told Rapper that I have a boyfriend now. (Not true but drastic times call for drastic measures). Rapper asked if he was at the bar, because if not it didn’t matter (what a dog!), I said he was coming over soon and escaped that train wreck. XL had to go home early because he had the morning shift the next day, said goodbye, and was off. For the first time, I went home instead of clubbing with the rest of my friends; I was bone-tired and am glad I got the sleep. So what’s up with me and Xiaolong now? I’m not sure, but I’m not angry anymore and he is on probation. Life is too short, so if he doesn’t shape up it’s on to the next one!

The True Purpose of Men

I swear God made men this aggravating to punish Eve for eating that damn apple. Now we get stuck with the repercussions. So I went to a new bar, Bar No. 10, to celebrate a friend’s birthday with her. I had to get up early this morning because I had to go to the studio and record in the morning (will update about that in another post) so I didn’t drink much at all and planned to leave at midnight. In actuality I left at 1 am, and headed straight over to Helen’s because I where the relationship between Xiaolong and I stood. In the last post I mentioned how sweet he was when I saw him Saturday night right? Getting a cab for me, telling me I’m wonderful, planning dates, etc. Well he didn’t text the next day. As a girl, you know the paranoia that can cause…and in my case anger. The way I see it, shouldn’t you text to see what I’m doing? Aren’t you curious? Because if not, then I don’t need to turn down dates with other guys for you (Which I did, and I even stopped flirting as much). I texted him asking if he just didn’t like texting, which I asked because I’ve known him for a month now, and he has been bad at texting the entire time. He answered that he was, but asked about my day and what I was doing. I responded, don’t put yourself out then, I will just talk to you later.  Which he didn’t respond to….it was a classic case of girl psychology, I said it didn’t matter because it did matter….gosh, it’s not rocket science.  So by the time I went to my friend’s birthday party I was ready to call it quits on this boy already. Nonetheless, at 1am I went over to Helen’s with a piece of my uneaten cake to give to him (have to watch my womanly figure, right?). He came over and hugged me hello, sat with me and my friends for about 2 minutes, didn’t ask me specific questions, and went back over to his friend’s table (it was his friend’s birthday). I was mad, but to not show it, we stayed there for another 30 minutes while I ignored Xiaolong’s existence. The entire time I pretended my Korean friend who has amazing AMAZING Chinese, Junyou, told me Xiaolong is a “playboy” and I should let him go. Junyou’s reasoning behind that opinion was just that he could “tell”, he has lived in China for four years and can tell these things apparently. He said he said those sweet things and acted that way to get in my pants, I didn’t tell Junyou this, but he never got into or tried to get into my pants! Also, apparently I tried to kiss him that first night where we began holding hands, and he put it off until he “decided” about our relationship and decided to wife me up in other words. We have still yet to kiss for you perverts who want to know~ Also, he is a nice guy, just a nice guy who was ignoring me. I didn’t really think about it much, so when Junyou told me to delete his number from my phone, I did and felt free.

That is up until this afternoon when I was napping and woke up to a phone call. I was still sleeping when I answered so I said the customary hello, and when the person on the other line responded I said, “Sorry, who’s this?”. Of course it had to be Xiaolong, so my sleep fogged mind made me tell him, “Oh yeah, it’s you, I deleted your number so I couldn’t tell right away”.  He asked why, and I told him it was because he made me confused and my friend told me to, needless to say our conversation went downhill from there, he asked me about my day, I asked about his, but we were both mad. So it only went on for like 7 minutes before we decided to hang up. Also right at the very end I asked, “So should I save your number again?” And he answered with the most annoyingly frustrating thing, “Do what you want.” WTF does that mean? So I thought about it for half an hour and saved it anyways, but under the name “Bad Person”, we shall see if he finally gets his act together, I’m giving him until Friday, and that way I will have the whole weekend to sooth my broken heart with drinks and dancing haha. Sorry about this angry post guys, but this thing between me and Xiaolong is going through more ups and downs than a roller coaster.

Update: I texted him “you’re not mad at me right?” last night and he has yet to respond. Which means he is mad, whatever, I put out the olive branch since I stopped on his, so if he doesn’t decide to take it, his problem.

So There’s This Guy

And he is annoying the heck out of me……

Let me go back:

The day after my birthday, I went to where he works and it was pretty tense between us, I sat down with a co-worker/boss of his for 30 minutes (just talking!), but Xiaolong kept coming up and putting his hand on my shoulder/back…kind of possessively? Then when the guy went away Xiaolong came up to me and said I was “bad”. I really didn’t mean it in that way, I usually flirt madly but I didn’t even exchange numbers with the guy, I’m taming down. Somehow by the end of the night we ended up sitting in the corner holding hands, blahblah, and he said, “Why would you like me? I’m not good enough (he didn’t graduate from college but he’s so sweet)”. I said, “What do you mean? You’re great” Which he took as a confession, if you have ever watched asian dramas you know what I’m talking about. To get together one person has to say the actual words I like you. I guess he took that as an implied confession, then started talking with me about problems that might come up in our relationship, like me going back to America, and our cultural background differences. I was surprised by how seriously it was getting, but I was tipsy so responded with things like, don’t worry about that, it will work out etc.

The next night Patrick and some of his gym-buddies were having a get together at Helen’s, I was a bit apprehensive about going but decided to anyways. Upon arrival, Xiaolong was working and I pretended not to see him (he hadn’t texted the whole day so I decided he didn’t deserve my attention). He came up and hugged me anyways. While I was talking to Patrick’s friend (a muscular, nice guy, but my flirting was minimal at best…I was pining), Xiaolong took my friend Avi outside for a conversation that lasted 10 minutes. When they got back inside, I accosted Avi to find out the details, but like a typical guy he only remembered the bare bones, that XL said he liked me but wasn’t sure how to proceed, and the fact that I have a lot of guy friends hitting on me didn’t help I’m sure. I decided to go up and talk to him for a minute; he gave me a free drink but had to go back to work. At the end of the night (one of my other Dictionaries came by and tried to take me away for the night, but I was stubbornly waiting for his shift to finish, so didn’t leave). In the end, he came and sat next to me and said the most annoying thing ever, “I need to think about it and I will give you an answer tomorrow”. This pissed me off, not only did it make it seem like I am the one asking for a relationship (which I was not!) but the ball was in his court and he got all of the power. Even though I really didn’t ask I was still on pins and needles the whole next day. He finally texted at 9pm, Yes, but let’s take it slow. I wrote back, of course we are going to take it slow (what the heck, he was acting like I wanted to move in with him). That same night, I went to a new club with my friends, while there I made sure not to get too drunk, and only American danced at a minimum. Around 2am we all went over to Helen’s. He was getting done working so he and his co-workers (whom I love) were sitting around drinking. After 10 he took me over to an empty table and we just held hands and he started talking about how Americans date (he was obsessed with doing it right), and saying that having a foreign girlfriend is different. I was like, HOLD ON, girlfriend?…Does that make you my boyfriend? Which he said yes to, I was confused, to me that’s the opposite of taking it slow, but I didn’t argue. Maybe he meant taking it slow on the physical side of things, I haven’t told him I’m a virgin yet, which means he wouldn’t have to worry about my wiley western ways, haha. Anyways now I’m not sure if we are dating, I won’t call him my boyfriend until we have a few dates, American of me I know, but habits are hard to break…and it makes sense. Try each other out before taking the leap!

My Birthday- Bachelorette Edition

It’s official, I’m 21!! I am now of legal age for everything except retirement. Never again shall I be forced to strut into a club with Xs on my hands, now I won’t have to sneak the drinks that guys buy me J I am loving the feeling. Of course, as we all know, I am in China…so it doesn’t really matter, but the sentiment is the same. So my birthday was on November 30^th, a Wednesday. Having a middle of the week birthday (especially the 21^st one) is extremely annoying. I had to make it work though. I have a VIP membership card for the karaoke place across the street from my school…I know don’t judge me. Anyways, on my birthday they give one hour free, a bottle of wine, and a fruit platter along with the room. A week beforehand I sent out text invitations to 18 of my friends here, half Chinese and the other half being from Russia and America, haha. My invite list had 3 potential dictionaries (I have not given up the search, though my last two dates have left me quite disappointed)., I assumed only one would be able to make it, but all three accepted (uh oh). By the way, birthdays in China are a little bit different, the birthday boy/girl pays for everything, so that’s why I didn’t want to have a birthday dinner, haha. I paid for everything in the KTV but it was worth it, only turn 21 once right?

It was going to start at 7pm, so I got there at 6:45 to get my reserved room and buy drinks, etc. and Xiaolong, Dictionary 5, was already there waiting at the KTV counter. He is a worker at Helen’s (our favorite bar, as you can tell from previous posts) that I met a little over a month ago. We always talk when he’s working, but for some reason I never really really considered him. Regardless, he took time off work to go to my birthday party so that earned him brownie points. He also acted as my assistant the rest of the night, after booking the room, I had to go downstairs and buy the expensive snacks (peanuts, dried fruits, tea, juice, etc) for our room because it was my birthday and I wanted to go all out. He would go around with me and make sure everything was alright. Dictionary 4 came a little bit later with a cute rolling cat figurine as my present; he is someone I met at Helen’s two months ago. He had a girlfriend the first time I met him so I dismissed him early on, but a month ago he broke up with her, so I was back in business, haha. We all sang a few songs, and everyone started arriving, a big pile of presents starting mounting in the corner, everyone was so sweet, I really didn’t expect presents. I will write a final list of what I got at the end! My first taste of legal alcohol was wine that came with my birthday package; I had to document the moment and couldn’t have it be of me with beer….wine just seems classier am I right?

Back to Dictionaries: Sometime after our wine toast, Dictionary 3 came by with a guy friend of his (minus point), he’s a fellow student at Nankai and hangs around in the same circles as me so I’ve known him for a while. His style and mannerisms remind me of the leader of the Taiwanese boy group, Fahrenheit. He went all-out in singing songs so that gave him his point back, haha. But he’s still a question mark in the back of my head. My friend/future-baby’s-daddy Patrick (a Chinese-American) told me that it was like watching an episode of Bachelorette with me. Jumping back and forth and talking to all three of them, I had to give them a fair chance you see. He also just started his career in architectural design, so my gold-digging subconscious put that as a plus sign for him. But, talking with him throughout the night, he was nice but nothing special, no spark. ..but a good friend nonetheless. Dictionary 5 didn’t sing but for some reason I kept going back to sit next to him, so I finally decided on him I guess. Details about him are in the next post.

Birthday gifts:

A pink dozen roses (given by my Japanese guy friend), rolling cat figurine (Dictionary 4), Jar of Hersey Kisses and stuffed bear (a Japanese girl friend), cute bear cell phone holder and photo frames (another Japanese girl friend), bracelet (russian friend), bear pencil case and diary (Russian friend), book of Chinese poetry (Chinese friend), shampoo/conditioner set (Chinese American friend), a gray scarf, whit scarf and birthday cake (Patrick and Avi), hand-painted picture and candy jar (Chinese friend), and hand-carved scented soap. And of course, lots of great memories~~