Life with a Paycheck

Last week ended with me being the last staff member off campus on Friday night, which is not typically a great start to a weekend. No one actually told me that people leave early on Friday, so of course I had a meeting with a student after everyone had left.

That said, the evening was both entirely awesome and entirely nuts.

I went to an Italian place with some of the foreign teachers at my school. It’s a lot more expensive than the local Chinese faire, but for foreign food it wasn’t bad. I got some passable spaghetti Bolognese for about 60 yuan (nearly $10). Afterwards, we went to this bar/restaurant called the Blue Marlin (not to be confused with the Blue Bar). It’s definitely a bit pricier there, but the location was right by one of the nice canals in Wuxi, which I hadn’t seen until that point. I finally got to meet some of the Wuxi #1 School staff, including this great Chinese-British guy with a really neat arm tattoo that he got in the Netherlands. Another guy there brought his baby (yay bars in China that let you bring kids), who was possibly one of the cutest 1-year-olds I have ever seen. I have a picture of Phoebe holding her, but I don’t want to put it up on my blog without permission, so I’m having Claire ask whether it’s okay to post. 

Mark and Shaun at the Italian place (candid shot):

 Saturday was another great day; Claire and Dominique came over for brunch, then the three of us went shoe shopping and didn’t buy any shoes. Instead, we all got milk tea (or something similar) at Coco and bought non-shoe items. I got a really neat vest-thing that says “Love is the Answer” with a really dorky picture of two guns growing flowers out of the barrel. Claire got a really cute dress at H&M. I have to say, it’s really nice having a paycheck and living in a country where a lot of goods are cheaper than at home. It’s nice to be able to go shopping with friends and not leave having spent my whole paycheck. 

My delicious birdy-in-a-basket sandwich with stir-fried onions in the middle: 

Claire's scrambled eggs:

Another picture, because it was so freaking delicious: 

The after shot: 

Claire and Dominique cooking brunch in my kitchen:

Dominique cooking scrambled eggs:

My completed living room:

After hanging at Claire’s for a bit, Dominique and I headed home (we both live in the same complex) amidst some seriously pouring rain. Even Dominique, who is from Oregon, admitted that it was raining hard. A lot of the puddles were ankle-deep or higher. Finding a cab was so much fun…I don’t think I’ve ever been more soaked in rain without actually trying to get wet.

Sunday was a much more difficult day for me on a personal level. The combination of long distance, a 15 hour time difference, and me working about 45-50 hours per week has been really difficult in terms of my relationship with Julian. We previously agreed that we would no longer be in a relationship for the duration of my stay in China, and I very unfortunately suggested that our agreement take effect. Right now, my hope (our hope?) is that ending this relationship on good terms now will leave us open to the possibility of getting back together when we can live on the same continent in the future.

Claire very kindly took part of her Sunday to spend some time with me. We ate at a ramen place downtown, went grocery shopping, got more milk tea, and sat in McDonald’s and shared an order of fries. We spent a lot of this time talking about the future and what we might want from our lives. I need something to focus on to keep from losing my marbles a bit, so I’ve started to consider the possibility of graduate school and the more immediate need to take the GRE. Combined with work, I think I’ll be staying pretty busy.