Defeated again on Tuesday. I thought nothing exciting could happen tonight, I was going from work to dinner than back home. I keep forgetting that I am in China. So I met up with Hua for dinner at a place near his house. First the food, it was awesome. We had cold rice noodles that are fast becoming a favorite appetizer and eel with rice krispies, extremely spicy rice krispies. Imagine a rice cake that is dropped in spicy sauce, absorbs the sauce and then dries out so just the hot part remains… that is what we had for dinner.

So we met to discuss our trip to Cambodia which now sounds like it might include Vietnam and Laos. After that though we were talking about many different things and were at one point talking about the economic policies of Dong Xiaoping. Specifically we were talking about how he opened the country up econimcally while keeping it closed politically. It was at this point that I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see an extremely drunk younger Chinese man standing by my shoulder. As he started talking the managers at the restaurant started to descend. It was coincidental timing though. He just wanted to talk about America and how he liked it more than China because you were more free to express yourself there. His choice of freedom of expression was music which endeared him to me quickly even though it was Nirvana (#1 in his book because they don’t fuck groupies), Bon Jovi (#2 because he does), and Ricky Martin (who would have fucked him). He was also a big fan of the Sex Pistols. It was an amusing couple of minutes talking to him about the US and baseball.

Afterwards I swung by Hua’s apartment to see it after he had set it all up. It is a nice place with a great view. It is within spitting distance of my place but due to geography and very high fences it is about a 20 minute walk. So I broke one of my own rules and hopped in a cab to get home. I need to shower now because I have compromised my morals to such an extent.