Long story short, I had a pretty eventful birthday.
Let's start at the beginning. The week before my birthday I was waiting at the elevator in my building when I saw this man holding a suitcase. The guy looked like an American and he looked really... familiar. I kept trying not to stare at him but still kinda staring to see where the heck I knew him from and then it hit me. That was Professor Beech from Bemidji State University!
Turns out that the students from BSU on the China trip came in May, not June like I was told. 16 students, most of them my classmates or friends. It was a blast having them here and (I'll be honest) really refreshing to have someone speaking midwestern English.
Thursday three of those students and I went to a massage parlor down the street. It was my birthday present to myself. I'd never gotten a massage before so I opted for the hour long full body one. And it was the worst thing I think I've ever done. This place was clearly meant to be a spa with massaging on the side... or maybe I just happened to get someone who didn't know what they were doing. In any case, I walked out of there with a really sore back, more knots than when I went in and bruises on my stomach (why the heck anyone would think it was a good idea to rub someone's stomach like that, I have no idea.) So... I paid good money for someone to beat the hell out of me.
This woman who works at the place where I tutor part time (actually, she and her husband own it) took me out for dinner and another massage on Friday. We went to this Szechuan restaurant that seems to be a pretty popular chain. I told her that I had no idea what most of the items on the menu were so she ordered a little bit of each so that we could try everything. Things that were delicious: chicken hearts, squid, tofu, mushrooms, silkworms. Things that weren't: chicken skin, chicken heads, cartilage, gizzards. But I still tried everything once or twice because the fact that we in the west think of it as gross doesn't mean it tastes bad or is bad for you. Then I realized... I've had chicken head, chicken neck, chicken cartilage and bone, chicken feet, chicken breasts and wings and legs... hearts, gizzards... I think I've eaten an entire chicken by now.
The other item that surprised me were the silkworms. They come in a cocoon that you bite open with your teeth and then you just kinda squeeze/suck the worm out. They taste like boiled eggs and have about that consistency as well. Delicious as heck, really, but my hands were shaking so badly when I tried them. I've got this lifelong fear of bugs and now I'm willingly putting one in my mouth? Man...
After dinner we went to get REAL massages. It was really fantastic. This time we got foot massages since apparently the feet hold the key to everything else in your body. Rubbing the right spot on your feet is supposed to be able to cure almost everything. I don't know if that's true or not but the guy really went to town in a borderline painful way and when I walked out of there my back wasn't sore anymore. Fabulous.
Saturday night I had my REAL birthday party with my students. We went out to Karaoke, which is called 'KTV' here. It's not like Karaoke in the states where you get up in front of the bar and sing to everyone. Here you rent out a private room and get to control your own songs, song order, dance lighting, all that. There was a super comfortably couch that we all lounged on, drank beers and ate some delicious cake. I would add pictures but for some reason the picture uploader has decided it hates me.
Only one of the American guys came and he had to duck out early, but that's alright since we had a blast singing Chinese songs. Surprisingly enough there was a good selection of English songs on there. Everything from Sarah Brightman to Mumford and Sons to Lady Gaga. Disco (one of my students) and I rocked the HECK out of a Linkin Park song and I learned how uncomfortably inappropriate Lady Gaga's 'Paparazzi' music video is... didn't really bother me but students in China are far more conservative and seeing Gaga make out with Alexander Skarsgard for two straight minutes induced a lot of awkward coughing and trying to look anywhere but the giant TV.
We started Karaoke at 9 at night and stayed there until 5.30 the next morning when we got kicked out. Since the gates to the school didn't open for another half hour and we didn't feel like jumping, the 6 of us left decided to go out for breakfast to this porridge place. The same porridge place with the Century Eggs that I declared war on. Luckily I was able to get some normal Baozi... Just can't handle dealing with those eggs at 5.30 in the morning.
My throat was DEAD the next day and I was tired as hell but it was so. much. fun. I would definitely do another night of Karaoke... just not any time in the near future. It's been over a week and I'm still recovering.
Alright, now I've got to get back to real life. I found a cockroach last night and today I'm making the trek to the store to pick up some chemical weapons to destroy their clans. I like my cockroaches like I like my Spider Jerusalems. Stuck in obscure comics where I can think about how cool they are and how I wouldn't mind having one but MAN the second I see you in real life, you're getting hit with a shoe.
Ahh the facts of life.
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