Day 8 - Slow day in Asia

Last night I decided the thought of spending the evening in my hotel room alone wasn't all that appealing. I had passed a movie theater down the street and a movie sounded like a good idea. They do things a little differently here and I think they have it right. In the US you buy a ticket and show up early so you can get a good seat, particularly if it is a popular movie. Here you get an assigned seat like at a sporting event or concert. You go up to the ticket window and they show you a diagram of the available seats and you pick yours out. Even better you can buy your ticket days in advance or even go on the internet and buy your tickets where you can see what is available before you even go to the theater. I thought it was pretty cool because you could show up right when the movie started. No showing up early and hoping you get a good seat. Another nice thing is the theater had a bathroom inside of it. Much faster to get in and out if you need to make a pit stop in the middle of the movie. On the negative side all the movies have Chinese subtitles. It can be a little distracting but you get used to it. TV is the same way. Popcorn and a Coke for $6 was pretty good too.

When I got back to my room the message light was blinking. A couple of guys that worked in SF have moved out here to be supervisors and I know them pretty well. They called while I was at the movies and invited me out for some cocktails. It gets a little lonely in the hotel room so the prospect of some social time was intriguing. Now mind you it was already 11 o'clock and usually I would be asleep. However it is Saturday night and who wants to go to bed at 11? I hooked up with them at a small local bar in their neighborhood. It was interesting to hang with the locals for a bit. They were eager to show me that they appreciated me coming over to help them out so they were buying all night. Of course one tequila turns into 2, and 2 beers turn into 3...I am sure you get the rest of the story. Did I mention that they serve alcohol 24 hours a day here? With no last call to save me I was doomed. It was a little rough dragging myself out of bed this morning, thank god it was Sunday.

So today I didn't really do too much. I hung around the hotel and did some laundry. I watched some DVDs and pretty much just hung out. Tomorrow is my first day really teaching classes so I am a little nervous but happy to have a purpose again. Hopefully all will go well.