ouch

just got back from a nice shabu shabu dinner with alvin, linda, sherry, and a couple of newer indo students. have to say i was grateful tonight for monday night closures of dan's old farm house, where alvin initially wanted to head. i had my dose of pork for lunch when cyn, willie, and i headed to a canto hong kong-style cafe that cyn discovered a while back. i was feeling soupy because i hit a wall around 5:30 today - sore throat, achy body, exhaustion. the random weird sickness i keep warding off and succumbing to off and on is back. i think everyone in china fights a virus for months, or perhaps the whole duration of their stay here. possibly.

so now i'm home, showered and clean, sipping theraflu and vowing to go to sleep soon.

willie and i went to see the suzhou creek area today. he initially wanted to check out a lacquer and wood furniture exhibit, but we got dinged because it was monday and most things were closed. still, it was very cool to walk around and see what there was that was open. i can't draw for shit but i really love seeing art and being around artsy shit. i meant to head to suzhou creek when i first got here and there was the art biennial, but never did make it up there.

apparently a lot of the 'creative firms' are located near the suzhou creek area, which means that they're in serious need of a full injection of western artsy culture - aka a viable coffee spot. instead willie and i parked on a random stoop and shot the shit for about an hour while slapping random bugs off of us. it's bug season as the weather warms, and apparently because the winter was especially mild, the mosquito crop is going to be off the hinges. not excited about that.

we went back and met steph at aFP, intending to sit outside and have beers in the garden, but the wind kicked in big time and then i hit my wall and got whiny and would only drink fresh OJ. what a baby. willie and steph were troopers and ordered cocktails.

long story short, i was glad we ended up at shabu shabu and not chowing on various meats and sauerkraut and mashers.

we may be heading to yellow mountain on thursday. i hope we do. i've been stuck in shanghai, mired by the thick sloppy mixture of free flow champagne and 2-for-1 martinis. bad scene.