Seventh Day Chengdu

I didn't do much on Thursday other than watch the USA trounce Turkey in basketball and go to bed early. I also read a lot, studied Chinese and enjoyed the air conditioning. It was hot. And I said hi to a cute Chinese girl and smiled at her. I didn't really know what else to say so I left it at that.

Yesterday I got up early, decided to take a new route to get to the coffee place. I took a wrong turn on the main street (Fangcao Dongjie) and didn't realize for about 15 minutes, then took another wrong turn and by the time I got to the coffee place I was soaked with sweat even though it wasn't yet ten o'clock. So the ten minute walk became about 40 minutes as I got lost on the streets of Chengdu. Then I ordered my coffee in grammatically correct Chinese and looked up to see Alex at the table next to the counter. We chatted for a bit, then I walked back home and did some Chinesepod lessons.

I met up with Rick for lunch a bit later, then went back to my house and hung out with Sam for a while, finished my book and then we walked over to Alex's.
EDIT: There was also a 5.8 earthquake. It was the first of my life and just kind of weird. Dogs started barking and it was just like everything was wobbling a little bit. Very hard to describe what it feels like but I was sitting down so it was prob. less intense. It's always interesting in China!
We went outside to see the eclipse but it was too cloudy so we didn't really see anything. Then Alex and Sam and I went to dinner someplace near Alex's, it was really busy and loud, which is to be expected at more normal dinner hours (around 6-7, but we usually eat later, around 8 or 9).

We walked back to our apartment after, watched the piranhas eat and I took a shower, then we went out to Cafe Paname, a more Euro-centric Westerner bar. It's right near the Leg and Whistle, across the street from the new Hooters. It was a cool scene, we met up with a Scottish guy named Andy who lives in the neighborhood who does music stuff and told me if I wanted to come check out his equipment to come by. Also, I talked to the owner of the bar, a French dude named David, about possibly DJ'ing there and he gave me his card. It was nice to hear some hiphop and popular American music for a little while. After the bar we got some late-night food then took a cab back home to Yulin.