Friday, we finally had the company basketball game that I've been looking forward to all summer. The game went pretty well for my team (we won by about 30) and I had a good game; I think I ended up with more steals than points, which was strange, although not that surprising given my ballhawking and the lack of hustle by most of the players. It was a lot of fun to get out there and play for a team again. I think we might have another game on Tuesday, but that's still up in the air.
After the game, as per usual, we went out to dinner as a team. The meal was rather uneventful, but it seemed to drag on for hours as the guys kept drinking and smoking and talking. I could tell that they were occasionally talking about me because they kept using a few of the words I can pick-up in spoken Chinese: "Tang Mu" (my name), "laowai" (foreigner), "meiguo" (American), "ta" (him, accompanied by a nod or a point). After about an hour and half (and two beers, which was enough for me) I told Michael to stop ordering me beer because I was full, which is a sign that he usually understand means I'm ready to go. The drinking and the smoking continued and my mood deteriorated. I didn't want to be rude and cause a scene, so I went along with it, accepting a third (and fourth) beer and going along with all of the toasts and trying to follow the conversation that completely eluded me. I gave every non-verbal signal I could signifying that I was ready to call it a night: bored expression, staring into the distance, pretending to sleep, but nothing worked. I had to repeatedly shoot down offers of a "massage" (offered with a wink and pronounced "mah-sah-gee," which confused me for about a minute). It felt like I was being held hostage. After another hour (2.5 hours into dinner at this point, after all the other customers had left the restaurant and the management had turned off the lights), I firmly told Michael that I wanted to go home. Thirty minutes after that, we finally left. I was angry (in addition to being sore from the basketball game), so I wasn't very talkative. Michael seemed surprised that I was unhappy and was cautiously trying to make me feel better to no avail because the time for that was hours ago.
September 4
I went to work today, but I'm not sure why. When I try to find something to do, I'm told we have to keep waiting for a part to come in or there is nothing to do. Even my desire to teach myself CAD skills has deteriorated due to the amount of self-teaching I've done this summer. It's going to be an (un)interesting last week.
September 5
First things first, Stanford football. Other than my family (and one particularly resilient Volvo), nothing has been in my life longer, which made it especially painful that I was missing my first home game in 5 years. But, thanks to the aforementioned smallness of the planet, I was able to listen to the game on the KZSU website. We won big over Sacramento State, but I still wish I was there. Hearing the train whistle in the background didn't make me any less homesick.
Wow, this is going to be my last chance to go out and explore Hangzhou. I was resolved to make the best of it. I decided to wander through the city and buy my lunch at random vendors, which was a fantastic idea. I got a naicha, 2 baozi, an apple and 3 cookies for about 11 kuai (a buck fifty), and it was delicious. I started to feel like I could actually make it in Hangzhou. It's a bit bittersweet to begin to feel comfortable in the city on your last day there, but such is life.
I went shopping after my lunch excursion and picked up the last of the souvenirs I planned to bring back. I first tried as few stores near the West Lake, but they were selling their goods with a huge markup, so I returned to Hefang Lu, the site of my bargaining failures the previous week. I had great success there and I was even able to communicate effectively with the lady in the booth. Perhaps I'm viewing my last weekend with rose-colored glasses, but I had a great time.
By the time I finished my shopping it was around 2PM and I didn't know what to do. It was far too early to return home, but I was at a loss for things to do in the city that I hadn't already done. Then I had an idea : walk all the way around the West Lake. I'd circumnavigated the lake by bus/taxi/foot over the course of my previous weekends in Hangzhou, but I hadn't done it completely on foot before. I knew it would be a long distance, but I didn't know how far exactly. I decided to not let reason interfere with action and set off to walk around the lake clockwise. It was a long, but pretty walk. Definitely the most beautiful that Hangzhou has looked all summer. I stopped at a few pagodas and other points of interest along the route (and took more pictures than were necessary). About halfway across the Su Causeway a nice breeze picked up, which was welcome as I was dripping with sweat by that point. All told, it took me about 2 hours to walk around the lake, which was not a bad pace if I do say so myself.
Finishing up my circumnavigation of the lake, I decided to climb up to the Baochu Pagoda again to get one last view of the West Lake in all it's splendor. Wooded areas are always incongruous in urban areas, and the area around the Baochu Pagoda is no exception. I didn't expect to get harassed by mosquitos, but I certainly did. Despite this, the view was still glorious. Less glorious were my attempts to navigate trail signs in Chinese. I took a different route down than I had come up, yet I still ended up coming out near the same place, despite my intention to come out on the opposite side of the hill.
My next stop was a last bit of grocery shopping, where I actually ordered everything I wanted correctly and even got engaged in conversation in the checkout line. All told, it was a good day in Hangzhou and I managed to navigate the entire day without the use of my map, a particular point of pride. When I got home I checked the mileage and saw that I'd walked 11 miles that day (about 8 around the lake). Not bad, not bad.
And now, a bunch of pictures:
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| A shaded street in downtown Hangzhou that seemed very out of place, but also reminded me of home. | A famous park called "Orioles Singing in the Willows." |
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| An island covered in turtles in the middle of some park along the West Lake. | This boat is pretty awesome. |
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| Xi Hu Tian Di, the unofficial expat consulate of Hangzhou (and the first place I found in the city to have a decent cup of coffee) | I think this is the Leifeng Pagoda, but I'm not sure because I've had difficulty keeping the pagodas straight |
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| This also might be the Leifeng Pagoda. It's like a fort overlooking the West Lake | A "Roman-style square" at a random point along the West Lake |
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