Sarah is coming!!

Hello Hello, so sorry it's been so long. I have completely lost track of time lately as I have had a big test, a birthday, and a class fieldtrip. So I finally had a test in my grammar class last Friday which I did okay on. Just so many characters we are learning and putting them into the correct order is really hard to remember! But everyone did a pretty good job on the test I believe and our classes are fun.
My birthday, which I celebrated 13 hours before it really was my birthday in the States, was fun fun fun! I invited a nice group of friends out to dinner at a restaurant down the street from our campus. It was such a diverse group of friends that it was slightly difficult to start up conversations that everyone could join on. There were two Chinese, a French, two Germans, three Nigerians, and then me and my friend from the States. But it was still fun. Then after wards we four of us went to a fancy wine tasting party which was filled with classy Europeans...so we felt underdressed and out of style. But they had some killer wine that was pretty delicious. After that we moved to a few other places and finally ended up at some dance club as usual. I had a good time and didn't die, so that's always a plus on your 21st bday! Haha.
Last weekend my program from America went on a group fieldtrip to Xi'an which is to the West of Hangzhou and about a 2hr plane ride. We left for the airport at 6am the morning after my bday party...I was going off of about an hour's worth of sleep. Ha, but we were on time and I was just dandy after I slept on the plane. We had a very busy weekend as we went to see one of the most popular Pagodas, the Tarrocatta warriors excavation sites, a bell tower, a drum tower, and a Muslim neighborhood. It was pretty cool and we all made many purchases. Sunday we shopped like all afternoon because our flight home wasn't til 9pm. So after I had already spent a few hours shopping, I split off from the group and found an awesome video game arcade! Yes, videogames. The only reason why I was so interested in the arcade was because they had DDR! So I made some Chinese friends who I played the game with and had a ton of fun. Two hours have never gone by so fast before! I felt like such a nerd, but I told all my friends back home that was one of the things I was looking forward to when coming here. It was so worth my lunch money!
The mosquitos are still biting the crap out of me even though it's cooling down. Unfortunately, I think my legs will be covered with scars when I return home. And it's not from scratching and having the bites turn into scabs, it's just from the bites in general. Of course I have cream to help the swelling and itching, but dang these mosquitos have some crazy juice in them!
Anyways, off for a nap. They are becoming my new favorite habit here!!

Temptation for a vacation invitation

So the holiday...it's great! No classes and good weather. I just got back from Shanghai last night from a short weekend trip with a few friends from Hangzhou. We stayed at our friend's friend's apartment and he took us out on the town Saturday night. We had some amazing sushi and then went to a really nice cocktail joint on the roof of a really nice building. The tables were lit up in the dark and there was a great view of all the city lights. Then we just explored some other places to hang out and had some great "American" at the end of the night. This included hamburgers, ceasar salad, fries, and a reuben sandwich! The next day we just lazed around in the apartment then went shopping and out for dinner. Ate pizza the second night which was just as delicious as everything else we ate. Shanghai pretty much spoiled my appetite and as soon as my day started back in Hangzhou, I was craving American food again. Dang it, and I was doing so well too! But Shanghai is such a modernized version of Chinese culture that it is not very accurate to how most of Chinese people live. It's like saying New York City represents America or something.
Anyways, sent off my second batch of postcards last week so hopefully one of you will get them! It's always crazy for me to think that all of you back home are just doing your thing 13 hours after I do mine! I am so caught up in Chinese culture that I truly loose track of time on a daily basis and I can't believe that I've already been here for a month. It feels like I've been here for a while because it was so easy and fun to adapt to the culture here.
The weather has finally cooled down and I can walk outside without feeling like a sticky jar of honey. But the mosquitos are still biting me on a regular basis. But not as bad as the first time when two of my fingers looked like sausages for a few days. That was painful! I also saw something typical happen while I was Shanghai that just made me run but laugh at the same time. Danita and I were walking around shopping when we passed a group of Chinese people on the sidewalk who were hovered over some filled plastic bags. As I looked over, I see a dead and skinned duck being transferred from one bag to another. Ha talk about raw black market! There stuff is so fresh here though. Another friend told me when she went to the market and walked through the fish section, there was a box of squirming crabs and then a water tank filled with eels. The eels were so jumpy and energetic that one of them slithered out of the tank onto the floor! My friend jumped and ran the other way...wish I could have been there to play with the eel!
I have officially given up on my search for a piano to practice...because everyone I've asked on campus doesn't seem to have a clue where one would be. So I guess I'll just have to play catch up when I get home and devote all my time to the music building...NO ROSCOE'S!