quick recap and off to Xi'an

I'm leaving for Xi'an with Shannon and Dania in about an hour and a half, and I need to pack and shower...but I figured I'd take a few minutes to give a brief recap of some weekend highlights.

The weekend was short, because of the National Holiday. That sounds weird, I know, but let me explain. In China, they don't like giving people days off from work. The US obviously does not either. However, a major difference is that when the Chinese government DOES give a holiday (such as a week-long holiday celebrating the founding of the People's Republic of China), they say that you must make up at few of the days off, so that productivity doesn't decrease too much.

How does that translate into my short weekend? Well, the National Day holiday was October 1 (Sunday), and goes until Saturday the 7. In order to make up for days lost during the week, we were required to work on Saturday September 30, and are required to work on Sunday, October 8. That way, it's more like we only had 3 work days off instead of 5.

So on Saturday I think everyone showed movies in their classes. I showed 3 separate ones, and plan to continue Lord of the Rings in my English class on Sunday. We also got paid on Saturday, which was pretty awesome (especially since they made a mistake and paid me more than I was supposed to get....but then they later realized their mistake so I have to give the money back). What wasn't awesome was waiting in line at the bank for over 2 hours. We would have probably been there for another hour if some kind man hadn't given us his waiting number as he walked out the door.

Saturday night we went out to celebrate to a cute little restaurant (I had chicken quesadillas. I miss mexican food so badly) and then to a bar called "I love Shanghai." They sell t-shirts there that look sort of like the "I heart NY" tshirts, only less cute.

Sunday was our food-orgy day. 8 of us went to the Westin for Sunday brunch and it was pretty incredible. They had so many different types of food and beverages....and most of it was western food! They had a mini-orchestra playing classical music on the steps:

I think one of the highlights of brunch was actually the window/roof washer. That, or the rollerskating girls who gave a floor show which included one of them spinning the other around BY HER NECK. no joke. Anyway, here's the window washer:

Yeah, he is wearing a Superman costume. I'm a little confused as to whether or not he did that on his own accord, or if the hotel requires that to be his uniform. Either way, I like his style.

Anyway, I could write more but I'm off to Xi'an for 4 nights. I'll be back on Saturday late evening sometime...keep it real.