It's a world of laughter, a world of joy...

Today was Derick's birthday. Zhu ta shengri kuai le! (Because he doesn't know this blog exists, so I just said "Happy birthday to him.")

Today, Austin had his appointment with the DVD shop guy. Turned out that DVD shop guy wanted Austin to teach him to play guitar. Haha. That's so mean of me to accidentally set up. On the bright side, though, I think it's a good link to someone. I watched Austin try to teach someone how to play the guitar--across a language barrier. He doesn't read music or know chords or anything. It's fun!

I tried to buy some minutes for my cell phone today. I went to the convenience store and told the cashier that I wanted to buy a China Mobile card. She said they don't have any. I was like, "What?" Because they are just printed slips like a receipt. It's not as if there is a stock of them lying around or not. I left in a bit of a tiff, because I know how ask for those and they didn't comply. However, I'm learning that this whole play isn't starring me. So I finally decided to believe that maybe they are out of the paper to print them. (I'm choosing not to think things like, "She hates me because I'm white" or whatever, because it's probably not true. And that's called being a paranoid racist, neither of which I aspire to.)

Chanelle got moved across the room today and her place has been taken by an Indonesian guy named Johan Sebastian. I wouldn't put his whole name on here, except that it's Johan Sebastian. That's the best thing ever. He is named after Bach, for Pete's sake! His Chinese name is not nearly as exciting, just a transliteration of Johan. Anyway, he's really nice, and he helps me read, and he won't talk to me in English. That's pretty much why Chanelle and I got split. We speak too much English. Now she's sandwiched between a Japanese girl and a Vietnamese guy. I swear, for Halloween I wanted everyone to wear the folk costumes of their countries and so we could sing "It's a Small World, After All," but I'm fairly sure that suggestion would have been vetoed. And no one wants to see me in buckskins, so, there's always that.

I guess that's all the story-telling I can do today. I need to claw and kick my way back onto the subway. God bless Beijing's rush hours. They remind me that I'm still alive. And tall. And white. And generally not Asian or small or in a bubble.

T