Miserable bloody day (Marcus)

Well after what turned out to be an extremely pleasant day Friday, the ass has fallen out of the weather and Saturday is miserable to the max. We woke up and had a look outside and were not surprised - in fact, I suppose we were a little - we were surprised we hadn't planned a bloody trip to see a garden or some other outdoor activity as our track record has shown it only rains if 1) we are traveling somewhere or 2) it's our weekend. At least one of the two criteria was met.

So our only plans today was a trip to Metro to get a few supplies. Metro provides us with a much needed source of western breakfast luxury - hello cornflakes eggs and bacon. We also finally got some proper steak knives and a tenderizer. The meat we buy from the market is so damned tough that our flimsy little gift knifes just cant handle it. We were also eating it without tenderizing it(until recently) and it was not cool at all. It was likable to chewing leather or something and I was actually having sore teeth and gums from it...god only knows why.

So we caught a taxi to Metro, choosing one of two evils - Lung cancer from the smoking taxi driver or another cold from it being wet and horrible outside. We went with the cancer option this time.

We bought our stuff - always coming out of there with way more than we need - but it's a sort of stock up routine as without the luxury of a car it's not overly easy getting there on any day other than the weekends.

The walk back from the front of the school to our apartment was the absolute worst. Struggling with umbrella's and two large heavy bags each while it poured quite frankly sucked. Courtney opted midway to just not use her umbrella to carry one bag in each hand. I carried both bags in one hand with the umbrella in the other and my arm definitely thanked me for it later.

Blah. We have spent the rest of the day just moping around. For once we actually have a fairly busy Sunday ahead of us.

In the morning we have been invited to attend a 3 hour Chinese culture and language..thingy. The invitation came by fax during the week and was from the Wuxi Educational Department of something. It turns out the thing is being held at the school that Abby teaches which Courtney discovered having looked up the school's website and lo and behold, there's Abby. Whose Abby? Abby is in WuXi with her partner Matt who contacted us on the blog recently and we have arranged to meet up with. We were going to meet tomorrow in the city but it turns out Abby will be going to this thing also, so there you go, convenience.

At 6pm we're meeting up with Josh, Barb's chinese friend who lives nearby. We're going to catch up for some dinner just down the road at the coffee shop with the fumigated clothes fruit tea.

And that's about where we're at right now.

Oh and on a final note, the internet connection here is absolutely ridiculously slow here today. It is so damned frustrating considering it's one of our only sources of entertainment in this amazingly unfun-filled campus of joy.