Snow day, but a typhoon day...? It's the same difference I guess.

Well, this weekend was a lot of fun. The singing and dancing in 42nd street was amazing, but unfortunately I realize that the reason I didn't like the show the first time I saw it was because it lacked a coherent plot. Afterwards I hung out with Geoff and his friend Richard. It was awesome catching up with him. I haven't seen Geoff in about 5 years which is crazy.

I stayed the night at Lindi's so I wouldn't have to travel all the way back to Pudong. In the morning she had to head to Hangzhou so I just explored the city in the morning. I walked from NanJing Road to People's Square (where I was for a jazz concert last week), followed by finally finding the Bird and Flower market. The B&F market was full of crickets, fish birds and many other pets. Why crickets? I still have no idea, but there were millions of them on display, and many Chinese people paying close attention to the quality of the cricket. Maybe they are good luck. I myself don't want to buy any pets because if I leave in June, or am home for December and January, there will be no one around to take care of them/it. It took me almost 40+ minutes to find it, but fortunately it rocked. The B&F market was also surrounded by a separate electronics market and an "antique" market. I ended up buying a beautiful black and white skirt for 125 kuai (maybe 12 dollars), and ate xiaolongbao for lunch. Around 2pm I found the public bus that I took back to the school, but there were no seats so I stood for like another 50 minutes. Returning to school (where the bus let off and where I left my bike anyway), I stayed at school for several hours working. Afterwards I had dinner and met Barbara and Jen to watch a movie.

Sunday I was supposed to get up early at 8am and go biking with a group of regulars who like to explore the area, but for some reason I missed them. So instead of being defeated and just return home, instead I biked into areas I've never been before. I biked for about an hour and a half, found myself another weird narrow market, and looked around the myriads of farmlands. Here are some pictures:





I then returned to school, worked for about 5 hours on my emergency plans and added some furniture to my room, went to the market, cooked dinner, watched a movie and went to bed.

Yesterday, Monday, I had the leftover food for lunch but immediately after I got sooooooooooo sick that I had to go home early. I got home around 2pm and slept from 4pm until 11:30pm. I then woke up, cooked and ate pasta, then watched another movie and went to bed.

Now about today. Today is Tuesday, and tomorrow, Wednesday, school is canceled. "Why?" you may ask. A typhoon. Yes. a typhoon. There is a typhoon in the area that is supposed to be very severe, so they are canceling school. Now I was never expecting any snow days in Shanghai because I researched the weather. But a typhoon day? Ridiculous. In the areas that are more costal, where people live in huts, they are evacuating them for safe measures. I'm honestly worried, but no one who's lived here longer seems to be worried. I'm supposed to go to the US v. Nigeria women's soccer match tonight, but who even knows if the game is still on.

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Update: I doubt I'm going to the game. It's raining pretty heavily and won't be that enjoyable even if I manage taking a taxi or public transportation all the way out there. Oye. I guess tonight I'll try to maybe workout and/or have a nice dinner, typhon-proof my house, possibly buy some candles, study Chinese and read a bit. CRAZY.