This weekend has been a bit of a slow one. James took off for a weekend in Shanghai and Blake was tied down with commitments so we held off going to Chengdu in a desperate bid to save money. I have 500 yuan (40 pounds) to see me through till the 10th of April! So another quiet one in Deyang.
We arranged for mandarin classes and dinner on saturday with Christine but she had to cancel for family reasons. So we pretty much spent the day sleeping (till 12) followed by listless wanderings around Deyang. The weather remained good so we were fairly contented to laze about. We went to our usual food hangout and got the usual dumplings and beef noodles. Our mandarin is becoming slightly more proficient so we can at least order our favourite dishes.
Sunday was slightly busier. We had arranged to go hiking with a trio of friendly girls that we had met the day before (Vera, Bella and A-xun)....they are very very nice and have swiftly become some of our best friends. They took us to a place in Deyang called 'East Mountain'. Its not really much of a mountain but it is pleasant with lots of spring blossom on the trees. We spent the morning playing cards. We taught them a couple (cheat and spoons), which they seemed to enjoy. The chinese punishment for losing is having to sing (something they are very keen on), thankfully I did not lose as my singing voice is far from angelic.
After the hiking we went for hotpot. The restaurant was more warehouse, which was pretty cool and some of the waiters wore rollerblades. It was interesting lol! Anyway we mange to get through it without having to try anything new and the conversation was good with us picking up a few more chinese phrases.
In the afternoon we had ice-cream on the lake wall outside our apartment, something that we now do regularly. Then me and Barry left to go and have dinner with some students from senior 2 (Angel, Candy, James, Cloudy and Ray). Again they had chosen hotpot so me and Barry were more than a little concerned for our stomach linings. It was ok though, despite having to eat something or others throat, yummy! Again we learnt some mandarin and the conversation was good, which makes a change as usually when we speak to students they go red, giggle and whisper under their breath. However towards the end Angel was asking me some slightly inappropriate questions which I had to tactfully answer and divert. Its the eyes, I can't help it!
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