Weekend Update

Sam and I went to brunch on Saturday with Alex and a friend of his from Kunming. We ate at Grandma's Kitchen, a Western-style breakfast with French Toast, scrambled eggs, etc. It was great. Then we came back home and stayed out of the heat. I did some Chinesepod lessons and we went out for dumplings with Rick for dinner. Then we walked to Middle Bar and I saw a place where all kinds of old dudes were playing Go, marked it in my memory map. At Middle Bar we met up with a friend of Sam's who writes for More Chengdu, a Westerner magazine, and an American named Van, who works in Shanghai and has a girlfriend here. We sat around and had a couple of drinks, the weather was just cool enough that it was nice outside. After that, Sam and I walked home and got food from a nice place on the walk home that he hadn't tried before, it was really good. Then we came home and went to bed.

Sunday I got up and went to the Go house in the back alley. I watched for a minute and then was able to tell one of the men that I wanted to play Go with him. We sat down inside and set up the board. After about 5 minutes in which he had effectively killed more than half of my groups, we decided I should play someone a little worse. So a guy about my age sits down, who also trounces me, but not as bad. Then I play against him again, but with a 4-stone handicap. I lose again. A third dude sits down, probably late-30s, early 40s. He gives me a 9-stone handicap. This is the longest game, at the end they count up the points and give me a thumbs up, indicating that I had finally won. At this point, I decided it was a good note to go out on, so I packed up my things, told them thank you, and walked back home. The heat by this time (130, 2 PM) was awful, so I went back to my apartment and didn't leave for the rest of the day. Sam and I watched the USA-Russia game, sat around, he reinstalled windows on his laptop and I sat around and read. I went to bed at 930, feeling tired and sick. My allergies here have been ridiculous, even worse than in Austin. I have not been able to get rid of this congestion for the life of me. Other than that, things are pretty good, just trying to keep learning and see new things everyday, which is hard in the heat. My chopstick skills are off the hook right now though, and the food is still great.