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Well, I did go to the Cotton Club. I was expecting it to be some sort of huge nightclub where they’d have stage shows and stuff, but it was actually very small. It was really crowded, and I ended up sitting in a booth with a bunch of strangers. I saw a really good jazz band, led by someone who looked like a bored Chris Noth. The band featured a really excellent Chinese jazz trumpet player. So, my first trip to a club myself wasn’t so scary! I’ll definitely go back another time!

I’m a bit excited now, because I was flipping around on the TV, and what did I see but a preview for Boris Barnet’s Bountiful Summer, which is showing tomorrow on CCTV-6. It’s a 1956 Ukrainian musical that features Mikhail Kuznetsov, of Ivan the Terrible fame, as a singing, abacus-slinging Commie agronomist. I’m tuning in to watch it!

Oh — here’s another question (or a few questions): What is love for? What are relationships for?

It’s my birthday today. I didn’t do much — slept in, got a haircut, made plans to go out on Sunday with my friend Xu Gai. But, then she cancelled because she’s too busy with school. I hope I can do at least one fun thing this weekend. Tonight I’m planning to go out and check out this jazz/blues places called the Cotton Club. I feel a bit nervous about going alone, but there’s no other way.

I bet you didn’t know there’s a jai alai channel! If I order cable, it’s one of the channels I’ll get, along with Bloomberg, CNN, and Filippino Klasiks.

I often have these dreams in which I go to the bathroom and am just astonished by what comes out of me. I always think, “When did I eat THAT?!?” On my first night in Hainan, I had a dream where I pooped two halves of the seat of a wooden stool and a ceramic cup.

I just came back from a trip to balmy Hainan! I swam in the sea four times, sunburned twice, ate tons of crab, and communed (sort of) with monkeys! I nearly didn’t go because of a mean case of food poisoning, but I felt better at the last minute, packed up, and went.

I want to post some pictures from the trip. I think this site definitely needs some photos.

I got back the results of my medical test (the one all foreigners in China have to take), and it says I have something called sinus bradycardia! According to the web sites I’ve seen, that’s a heart rate of below 60 bpm, but it says on the sheet my heart rate was 75.

I got the last of my stuff moved today! Yay! Now I’ll have to deal with putting it all in place, but still, that’s great!

My French co-worker Camille helped me move some stuff over to my new apartment today, and about 15 minutes after we got back, he came to my door carrying a bunch of my stuff. I was mystified, and he said he’d found it sitting outside the dormitory. Then I remembered that when the taxi first came, I’d put a couple of boxes down on a planter, assuming Camille or Curtis 2 (my other co-worker) would put them in the car. Neither did, and I fogot about them. They were sitting there for like an hour, and nobody took them! They had really significant things in them too — one had four years’ worth of photographs, and the other had a bunch of new DVDs.

Thanks Camille!

Last night I dreamt about frozen foods. I was in a supermarket, and they had all these boxes of green bean over pasta dishes for 15 cents. Actually, one of the things that’s excited me about the new apartment is that it has a microwave. I’m thinking if I eat more microwave dinners, I might lose weight. That doesn’t seem to make sense, because processed food has more fat and salt, but since the food will be in single-serving sizes, I won’t eat as much, I think.

We all went to see Phantom of the Opera tonight. It was OK – not as great as I’d heard, or as boring as I’d feared. The girl who played Christine was a little inconsistent. The guy who played the phantom had a great voice, though, and the woman I saw at the benefit, who played the prima donna character, was really good too. Interestingly, almost everyone in the cast came from South Africa.

I also signed the lease on my apartment. For some reason, I had to hand in three months’ rent at one time, plus one month’s deposit. The problem was there is a limit to how much I can withdraw per day on my card, so I could only get out about 6,000 RMB. I was really embarrassed, and had to pay one part. Tomorrow I’ll go back and pay the rest.

In keeping with the “poo” theme, my toilet still hasn’t been fixed. At first, I was going down to the weight room to use the toilet there, but then that was broken too (but not by me). How did I solve my bodily function dilemma? I won’t say.

I ended up briefly appearing onstage at this telethon for tsunami victims. At first, the school just invited the foreign teachers to a benefit concert. Then we were told foreign students would have to perform, but we would just watch. That seemed okay with me. They also said a lot of Hong Kong and Mainland stars would be onhand to perform. So anyway, I went, and when we were in the car going to the TV station, the lady from the foreign office told me she’d just been informed that we’d have to get up on stage at some point, wearing ECNU sweatshirts, and make a contribution. In the end, no stars showed up at all (or anyway, no stars that I recognized). There was one mortifying part featuring foreigners, including a creepy Michael Jackson imitator, and a guy who couldn’t sing (but kept shouting, “Yee haw!”) wearing a cowboy hat. We were announced as something like “representatives of the foreign community, consulates, and the cast of Phantom of the Opera” (which is being performed here now). Then we all had to file up on stage. It was surprisingly nervewracking, for some reason.

Another piece of news is that today, finding my toilet wouldn’t work again, I finally got fed up and decided to move out. I went to a rental agent Xu Gai suggested, and they showed me a VERY nice apartment close to campus. It’s 2000 RMB a month, and in effect I’m paying 2500 for the one I have now. I hope I can switch. I just have to meet the landlords tomorrow, and if they like me, I’ll move in soon.

Well, Thursday there was a small snowstorm here! At first it melted, but then there ended up being about an inch that stuck on the ground. I was out in Gu Bei, and saw an impressive-looking accident involving a taxi, a police car, and a city bus. As far as I could tell, nobody was hurt, although the front and back of the police car were really smooshed. I’m relieved to have my new coat, which is long and black, of course. It was originally about 1,700 RMB, but was reduced to 470.

Yesterday I went to the hospital to have my breast checked out. On about the 20th, I woke up in the morning in a lot of pain, and when I examined my breast, some blood came out. It really frightened me, and although I procrastinated about it a little, I finally went to the doctor. Actually, it seems to be okay now, and the blood, and the swollen, painful part seem to be okay. The doctor examined it, I had an ultrasound, and they told me everything seemed fine. The doctor told me that 50% of Chinese women in my age group have some sort of breast discharge, either of liquid or of milk. He asked me to come back for another exam in six months, to see if there was any change.

I was invited to a party later that night by my student and a friend of hers. I almost didn’t go, though. I was really tired by the time I got home, because I hadn’t taken a nap, but I went to buy snacks for the party anyway. When I got home, I slept for like 40 minutes, but when I woke up I felt tired, overwhelmed and upset. I was disheveled, but couldn’t bathe because of my red water situation, it was cold outside, and I thought I’d be late to the party. I cried, and called my student, who said it would be okay if I were late. I washed my hair with water I’d boiled to make tea, dressed, felt better, and went. Actually, the party was realy fun. I met a lot of nice Americans — they were all older men, and friends of Paul and Lily, the hosts of the party. One was a professor at George Washington University, and two were lawyers in Washington. They were very interesting and great to talk to. Later in the party we had a singing competition, and I led them in singing the Erie Canal song. Unexpectedly, we tied for first, but one of the men argued that we should rule the whole competition a tie, because not many points separated the teams.