Having so much time has its good points and its bad.  The past 24 hours were exemplars of the good.  Last night I went up to the north side and had dinner with Max and Amy.  We talked for a while and then watched "The Aviator" (for those of you still wondering how China gets DVDs of American movies so fast, let me enlighten you.  The most common way is to copy an already existing DVD, usual from Europe or Russia.  For very recent movies (still in theaters in the states perhaps) they can either get a copy through more covert measures (taken from the set, or copied from 'viewing copies' made for the Academy to nominate for the Oscars) or just film it in the theater with a camcorder.)  I went home and stayed up late finishing a book. I slept in til 11:30, read the Times, read the post, responded to emails (scheduled two more interviews for potential Chicago students.  This time they're coming to me.  Rock on), showered, studied Chinese for an hour (I bought these text books in Bejing and I REALLY like them), then finally stepped outside to buy food for dinner.

I've been cooking a lot this week, to varying degrees of success. Today I look at cooking.com for some tips and my dinner turned out much better. In fact, it was delicious. I made a tofu carrot pea mushroom stirfry with fried rice.  And then I cleaned ALL my dishes up and was on such a streak that I cleaned the whole kitchen.  Then I put some laundry in (socks and underwear) and now I'm updating my blog. Tonight I plan on watching The Godfather, which I borrowed from Max, and hopefully get back at my Plato reading (it's been a while).

Let's look back and see how I did on my trip goals...

-buy a fuzzy Russian hat in Harbin.
Check.  It is big and warm.

-fly a kite in Tianimin Square at night
No, it was too cold to fly kites.

-ride a horse in Inner Mongolia, possibly while shooting at a target with a bow and arrow
No, my whole Mongolian experience was quite a let down.  Again, the winter thing (it's a real big tourist draw in the summer).

-start getting presents for people back home
Check and double check (man I was carrying a lot of crap by the end).

-maintain my daily addiction to the New York Times online crossword puzzle
No, internet cafes are very fickle about what they let you view.

-finally solve a puzzle without help from the internet (I've gotten really close!)
No.

-eat an animal I never have eaten before
Oh Yeah!  There was this whole street in Bejing that was one big outdoor BBQ.  I saw grilled scorpions, beetles, and many other bugs.  I ate deep fried silk worms.  Crunchy.

Four days until New Years.

-The Wandering Norseman-