It had to happen eventually...

Yes, I think it has happened. The food has finally done a number on me. That, combined with about a quarter-bottle of tequila and some beer, has confined me to my room for the day.

Nothing worse than waking up with a terrible stomach ache (ok, and hangover), and realizing food/water/humanity is just right around the corner, but you have to go through steamy, thick and toxic humidity to get it. And an even worse realization that if Chinese food is the last thing you want, your only options for Western food are more than a 45 minute walk away. If there was ever a time for me to know how to say McDonalds in Chinese, today was it.

But I dragged myself out of the dark den of my hotel room when the hotel owner offered to help me buy a cell phone. That's right, I am now the proud owner of a Chinese cell phone. The Chinese are really in to texting, so when I activated my phone, I had 8 text messages waiting for me from China Mobile, all in characters, which I have no chance in hell of ever reading. And apparently, the company likes to text news and weather daily, so I have that to look forward to.

Also funny to note: Some phone numbers cost a lot more than others. The Chinese are super into numbers being good or bad. 6 8 and 9 are very lucky, so phone numbers with those digits are really expensive. 4, 7, 13 and 14 are unlucky. The last four digits of my cell phone number are 7413. So very unlucky, I guess. But cheap.

Since the majority of people I know in Suzhou live in the same hallway as me, I haven't needed a cell phone. But I've started to apply for jobs, so it's important to be reachable.

Oh, and the best part of the whole thing? With the purchase of my phone, I was given a 24 pack of Coke, a Raid plug-in bug killer, and 2 bottles of body wash. Not like any American phone promotion I've ever seen!

I ran into the guys on the street after buying my phone, soda in hand, and decided to join them for a late lunch at Papa John's. The walk nearly killed me- alternating between mind-bending heat and humidity, and a sudden complete downpour. The pizza was worth the walk and the price, but we decided a taxi back wouldn't be so bad.

I promptly fell asleep for 3 hours, and when I awoke, I determined I must indeed have some sort of bug. So here I am, sitting in my dark cave at 9pm on a Saturday night, watching Futurama on my computer. I'm going to venture out shortly to the little market down the street for some Gatorade.

But I'm happy :)

Edit- So I wrote that first part of the blog yesterday (Saturday), but decided to wait until today to post it. Not that I have much more to add, only that I'm feeling a bit better. Last night Lindsay, Justin and I attempted to have a conference call on Skype between the US, China and Africa- it pretty much failed, but it was cool for the few seconds that it worked :)

The rest of today will be spent reading and doing homework. I have my first full 90-minute class to teach tomorrow, and since I tend to talk quickly, I need to come up with enough things to fill the time. My lesson plans always go quicker than they should.

And for those select few of you who care, my Kindle is working great- I love it. I checked out the English bookstore in Suzhou, and it had a few classics, but they were super expensive, and nothing caught my eye. So I've been reading a lot on my Kindle- I highly recommend "And Then We Came to the End"- it was hilarious and is perfect for anyone who has ever worked in an office.

And that's it for me. If you're so inclined, I'll include my Chinese cell number below. Alisa and I tested it, and it appears I can make and receive texts to the US. Not sure how much they cost though...

Rachel's cell: 011 86 159 06207413

Oh, and I finally put up pictures. Find them here.

China 1

Others are available on Facebook.

Love and kisses,

RDG

Your Chinese for the day:

Bie fang ni jiao zai zhuozi shang ba- Please don't put your feet up on the table