Rain and cool weather, game night round two, first date in China, Beer Meister Stolen Balls, and second band rehearsal

November 06, 2022

It has been raining pretty much all week. With that has come cooler weather. The sidewalks get slick, the soil gets muddy, and giant invasive African land snails emerge and creep around.

I had made plans with one of the women from last Saturday who I had shared contact info with. Our plans were originally for today (Sunday 11/6). She seemed really eager to hang out and contacted me on Tuesday and asked if I would be willing to go on our date early. Which we did, but it did not really work out. She showed up in sweat pants and a t-shirt and I got the impression she considered the encounter more casual than romantic. We did not get together again today. She is going to keep going to the hash, we will see what kind of signals I get from her going forward. From the signals she was sending it might be she was more interested in hooking up than dating. There will be more dates to come with other women and it did not hurt to try.

The rest of the week at work my students finished presenting their organelle projects, we had a lab about osmosis, and I got back into teaching using presentations. It was a good week at work, albeit a bit exhausting.

Since I worked so hard this week, I partied hard this weekend.

On Friday night a friend hosted a game night at his apartment. It was one of the guys from game night two weekends ago. It was fun even though I lost a lot. That just meant that I got to spend most of my time playing with his adorable half chihuahua half Pomeranian pup. I tried many times to get pictures of little Scooby but he would not hold still.

Saturday I went on another run with the Hash. This time we went to Meilin Reservoir in Meilinshan and ran all the way through to Tanglanshan. It was a 8.49mile (13.66km) run. Thanks to a poorly marked trail I got pretty lost. Afterward the hash shuttle dropped us at a Sichuan restaurant where we enjoyed some good food and many beers.

I am most certainly going to need to cut back on drinking. Between the excessive drinking with the hash house harriers on Saturday, and a daily intake of beer with dinner, I have started to develop mild withdrawal symptoms during the day at work. It is not a good sign when you feel bugs crawling on you and there are none there. I have decided to stop drinking during the week and to reduce my intake on weekends. I have therefore taken on the role of Beer Meister of the Hash. This means that I will need to be sober enough to count how many beers are left after the run each week. This responsibility will hopefully keep me from over-doing the drink.

Sunday (Today), despite much difficulty, I ordered my first delivery on Taobao. Soon I will have a 4 string banjo, a few pairs of toe socks, a pair of toe shoes, head phones, and a space heater. We had our second round of practice but one of our trumpeters was out "sick" (hungover). We are preparing for a show with 700 in attendance. So, to have him miss for this reason was a little frustrating.

Photos of the week are included below.

These are a bit out of order but the first 7 photos are from Saturday's run.

This is the Giant African Land Snail, which is on the first invasive species in southern China, it has only gotten here recently. They reproduce quickly and have no natural predators. They carry bacteria that can cause meningitis and tuberculosis.

I love how they paint all of the major utility structures with marine themed art.

This creepy statue was in a lecture hall overlook a skate park at the Gaga Garden near where I work. It is basically a little enclosed area where people skateboard, eat at restaurants, and take various classes.