KTV = Cock Block

So, Today was an eventful day....with a slow start.

I rolled out of bed around 10:30 this morning, then scrubbed the floor of my kitchen, which is still completely gross. Then, after completing that horrible task, decided to shower and get back into bed and continue my book. Well, reading my book turned into an hour nap. Oh well...what's done is done.

So, about 1:30, I ventured over to Meghan's appartment and found out she was on skype talking to the GK RA's, because her computer (provided by the school) has a microphone and camera. So, I joined into the conversation. Approximately 2 hours later, the conversation ended.

Then, the other Drake teachers (Megan, Chris and Travis) came over and we decdied to go to get dinner around 6. We found a restaurant that had pictures. We ordered a really, really good spicey chicken and peanut dish, steamed veggies and a soup that had squid, shrimp and some other fish like meat in it. Overall, a very good meal.

We then continued ot try to get into a KTV (Kareoke bar). The first one didn't let us in, saying it was full. So, then Meghan grabbed my cell phone and decided to call one of our Waibans, Maggie. Meghan invited Maggie to come out with us. So, Maggie, along with one of her friends Andy came. Andy is also a foriegn teacher and is from Korea. He spoke English very fluently. Then one of Maggies friends joined us (who worked form a Chinese-German company based in Chengde) and also spoke very good English; her mother joined too. We then got into a KTB. It was a lot of fun, however much different that we expected. When we heard it was Karoeke, we expected a bar wth a stage. Well, not exactly what we got. We were given a private room with a tv screen and kareoke machine. It was a lot of fun! Then, Maggie invited another American named Matt to join us. Matt is starting his third year of teaching. He was a Drake graduate, and tought through the CCEP two years ago. He liked China so much that he is in the start of his third year. We had a great conversation with us, and he is going to be a good resource. He knows pretty much all the other foreigners here, too. In this city of about 2.5 million, he said there are about 25 foreigners (who are white) here living at any other time. So, hopefully we get to now them well.

The akward part of the evening was that all of us (Drake people) got the impression that Maggie was on a date with Andy. Meghan was not pushy at all on the phone. All Meghan did was ask if she (Maggie) was close by, becuase we were going out and wanted to invite her to come along for a drink. Maggie then said she'd be by our apartment in 20 minutes, she was at the park. Oh well, I guess we will just have to plan in advance becasue we learned that Maggie will even bring a date along if we call her for something!! She is too nice!!!


Travis, one of the other foreign teachers, had his first day of teaching today. The other two teachers (Chris and Megan) at the teacher's college start on Thursday. Travis' first day was interesting he said. It was hard for him to keep the attention of the students for two hours and they were not very up to voluntering in class. We are going to have to brainstorm and come up with ideas to help prevent this from happening in our first classes and throughout the rest of the semester.

Tomorrow Meghan and I have another full day off. I think on the agenda is trying to get my macbook hooked up to the internet here in my apartment so I can finally get on skype. As for the rest of the day, no one knows! Things have seemed to all randomly fallen in place so far....so why change what's working well?

Hope all is great back in the States!!