yay.

oh my gosh oh my gosh. today ways great.

I started off the day by taking natlie to school and the usual morning skyping sessions. Then i dragged myself out of the house to explore. I walked down to the central area where the french market and the starbucks and places to eat and all that jazz was. It wasnt too long of a walk. Anywho, i just kind of bummed around by myself until i saw a (drumroll) ............. an english bookstore! yay! i bought yet another chinese language book but better than the others i have because it is written in pinyin (phonetic roman alphabet) It will be quite useful now when trying to converse with jack and jane in the home. Then i spotted what looked like an oasis....24 HOUR BREAKFAST and a TON of naturally gluten free dishes like smoked salmon and eggs and salads and stuff. So i popped in and ordered both, plus a cappucino, bliss. So im sitting reading my new book when what do i hear with my little ears? yup..Italiano, just to my left. so after recalling the verb for "to live" in italian on my blackberry I grew the balls to walk over to this family and ask...

"Mi scusi, ciao, Di dov'e sonno tutti?" ( excuse me, hi, where are all of you from?)

Italia!!!! not only this, but milano! not far from firenze, at least where north and south is concerned! And wouldnt you know it, i just happen to be wearing florentine colors ( purple and red) and drinking a cappucino, at this point these people love me and im thinking this is a major sign, new friends! serindipidous!

We continued speaking and i told them i lived there for a bit studying and that i was working now in shanghai. but mostly that " Italiano, suona belissima e familiare, grazie" ( italian sounds beautiful and familiar, thank you" then, Piacere! ( nice to meet you)

So really it wasnt the fact that i met new people or that i felt so comfy with italians that i feel i now have a life long ally in any country i run into them, or that i could recall italian so well, but really i was incredibly proud of myself for having the gusto to just walk up to them and begin speaking. I mean, it took some shoving myself off the chair, and i know its not the greatest accomplishment in the world or anything, but walking home i couldnt contain my smile, i felt simply fearless. yay for personal accomplishments. Then i also realized, walking home, im alone, half a world away from anything and anyone i know, and i feel okay. Not just this, but i did it all on my own. I got me thinking about how differnt a person i am from where i once was, it felt damn good. I thought " if i can do this, i can do anything"

Im sure ill have my future issues with being here, but today, was a good day. Also im learning a new chinese word every day, hopefully this will pan out well.
Im supposed to meet a friend of a friend at a jazz club tmrw night after natlie and i go to the cirucus, yay! chinese circus! hope it all turns out well!

As for travel plans i will be in Beijing for a week on chinese new year (not really quite sure what this entails yet) maybe meet up with a friend of a friend there as well. I learned natlie's chinese name today, and remembered it which is a big deal haha. Also portia and I had a great talk the other night, really starting to feel more comfy here. fingers crossed that it continues.

As much as i think i will grow to love china, I still am very aware of the government standing on many things here. Not that i would in anyway say that it is wrong, people live as they live. But i gotta say it does make me very thankful for the first amendment. I like that i can bash my government if i want to, and no one reads my emails, and i can google and facebook and not be charged 30 000 for having more than one kid ( not that that would apply to me at all lol) Anyways all this to say that i have a new appreciation for the u.s. in some respects, as much as i take issue with it as well.

I played tag today with a mandarin orange tree as base. hell yes.