Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Catching up

Much has happened since my last post, so I'll try to chronologically recap everything. I spent a weekend in Jeju (small South Korean island) playing in a nasty nines tournament. The Korean government along with various sponsors helped subsidize the tournament. One of the sponsors happened to be a Soju company so as you can imagine the soju was flowing freely Saturday and Sunday. Which was the main ingredient for a particular incident involving a former Michigan State ultimate player, a moving bus, projectile vomiting, screaming babies, and locked windows. We pwned everybody, won the tourney, and took the prize money (approx $1,100 USD).

The following Monday we fly back to Shanghai. I get a night of rest and have to get ready for the trip to Guilin (Guangxi Province) with 8 other Jiao Tong friends. This was was my second trip to Guilin and Yangshuo. It was just a beautiful as last time, but much more crowded because of the May holiday. My friend AH set the trip up with the help of his aunt who lives in Guangzhou, whom has some guanxi (connections). Which meant our group had our own personal bus driver to take us where ever we wanted and a tour guide. The trip was fun and I got to do a lot of things that I didn't do the last time (back in 2000). My highlights were the riverboat tour down to Yangshuo from Guilin, the hot springs in long sheng, the bike tour around the Yangshuo countryside (esp Uncle do a Dave Mira off the side of the road), and bonding with my friends.

When we got back I hit the books again and get my Chinese back on track. Resumed spartan training, which has now become: Track workout, 5 X 12 dips, 25 min of abs, 8 X 25 pushups, 100M walking lunges, 5 X 10 pullups. Been doing this workout about 2x a week and playing some pickup ultimate on Saturdays. Partied some more, introduced some beer pong to Asia, catching up on Naruto, 24, Sopranos, and Entourage.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

怎么说 "Wingman"? part II

...I do a quick scan of the situation and room. The left most side sat three girls in isolation who were friends of another girl who was an acquaintance of my friend (probably also wondering wtf is going on). There were approx 1.5 hostess girls for every man in our group. Each of us had our own hilarious look of feeling slightly embarrassed and awkward written on our faces. My Korean friend beckoned me over to him and his woman and introduced me to a couple of girls sitting next to him. I was promptly introduced as "my friend from America" (“美国的朋有”). So I broke out the chinese I accumulated over the last 1 1/2 months, which meant I could hold a conversation for about 45 seconds. Everyone else in my group is already pretty fluent and seemed to be holding their own, which meant watching the girls play dice games and drinking our liquor. Fortunately this memorable experience lasted for only about 10min. After which all the girls left our room in the most efficient formation possible. I suspect for two reasons: (1) They had paying clients elsewhere in the club. (2) Someone in our group leaked that we were students and had no jobs (thus no $$$). I keep telling myself it was #1.

We were basically back to the same situation as before. The three other girls were hanging out by themselves, six of us drinking and wondering what the hell just happened, while my Korean friend is making out with his women. I initiate some conversation with the three girls whom I originally thought were all Korean. I found out two were actually Chinese after complimenting one of them on their speaking ability. Unfortunately one of the girls had her mind polluted with Western culture after spending 8 years in England studying. She didn't find my sexist jokes charming and was speaking out of turn. So I go back to my friends who are hitting on the serving girl (服务员), who was actually much prettier than the hostess girls.

It was still early so I call around and make plans to meet up with some other friends at Attica. BTW while all of this is happening my Korean friend is making out with his woman. While coming up for air he would occasionally look over at us with a slightly guilty and embarrassed expression. Plans get squared away and we take off for Attica sans Korean friend and woman.

Updates since: Korean friend and his girlfriend of 10 days broke up. Korean friend lost a lot of face with us that night. If he would do the right thing and cut off his pinkie perhaps we could find it in our hearts to forgive him. We also still have two bottles of cognac reserved at that club, we are looking for the opportune moment to go back and pre-game there.