A Spectacle, Twice Over

Today was a nice day off. I woke up from a healthy and well needed 12-hour-night of sleep, and greeted my roomate Anna who was FINALLY back from vacaction. It's nice having a place to yourself, but it does get lonely and quiet a lot. But probably not if your play Britney Spears' 'Blackout' at full volume and dance around for an hour in your pajamas. Just an assumption.

I took a trip to the gym, where I'm treated like I'm their only [white] customer. I started my workout, running on the treadmill, and drifted off into my own little world in which Britney's new CD played quite loudly in the background (seems to happen quite often these days). Now, the workout machines are on the second floor, and face a wall of glass. Overlooking a big swimming pool, one can see all that is going on, and the same for the swimmers looking into the workout space. Halfway through my workout, I glanced randomly down below, and realized that every single person was crowded in one corner of the pool, watching me run. There were about 50 people with their eyes fixed on me (from the corner with the best view, might I add), having conversations that included gesticulating in my direction. Yeah, bit awkward. Actually, it was a lot awkward, and it continued for half an hour.

After I removed myself from that potentially harmful and excruciating typical situation, I had an hour of chinese lessons with my tutor, Fiona. I am actually getting into some conversation now, which is very exciting! 

Today is October 30th, and all of the foreign teachers are going to celebrate Halloween (we have a long day Saturday with class, so it would be a very bad idea to go out the actual date). I am about 90% sure that I am the only person dressed up. But, seriously, it's NOT Halloween if you don't dress up! With what I had, I put together a costume depicting a Chinese Runner. I have running spandex on, a hoodie, running watch, pollution mask (easy to fit into anything)  hair in a ponytail, and THEN I wrapped my rubber boots in toilet paper so that they look like casts. I made a sign that says:

I deemed it best to indicate that my legs were broken; therefore, my boots were casts, not rubber boots wrapped in toilet paper by a mentally unstable person. However, Chinese people can't read English, nor do they know about Halloween, so... I'm prepared to be that mentally unstable person for the night. And I am simply giddy to be dressed up, it's a bit sad actually! Maybe I took one too many cough drops today...