This is China.... the photo collection

After the unfortunate-ness that was Friday night, this weekend was great and this week looks like its only going to get better. Saturday I slept in (with the lack of an alarm because it is on my phone) and was semi-productive in the morning. At noon I decided to reward myself and go for a run, then I met Deborah and Ben at the Bookworm for a Photo Scavenger Hunt that my friend Ashley organized. There was a long list of things we had to find, including best pet fashion statement, elevator without a 4th floor, biggest crowd of gawkers, most bicycles being ridden in one picture, best decorated 3-wheeler, busiest Internet bar, "Cheng ren yong pin" ("Adult Items") Shop with the most customers, most exotic fruit, nastiest shao kao (street-side grilled meat and vegetables), most outrageous item being transported by bike, license plate from the most distant province, best "Chinglish" sign, an ear cleaner in action, best Chinese slogan on public display, most absurd photo of your team, craziest/weirdest thing you see today, a building that (according to national statistics) was erected in 1680 and serves a local population of 40,240 people, an object around which security was heightened after an incident that occurred in Beijing a week ago, and the "best" example of the public service that Chengdu Municipality recently stopped charging 0.2RMB per use for. We only had 2 hours to get all the photos and we did not get all of them, but we had an excellent time. See if you can guess which picture goes with which category.
After we got back I had to run before they could announce the results (we didn't win I now know) because I told Huangjie I would come to swimming. When I got there she asked me "Where's your phone?" and I started into the "I still don't know, I'm going to try again on Monday, blah, blah, blah" and then she says "In my bag." I was so excited I could have kissed her. Apparently she had tried to call my phone again this morning and the guy answered and she went to pick it up for me. I told her I was SO grateful and so sorry I couldn't go out with her to pick it up and that she was the best friend ever and that I would have died in China long ago if it wasn't for her, which is all true. So I have my phone back! Yay! It was a beautiful today, and although it felt good to get in the water, there were A MILLION people there so it was really annoying to swim. After swimming Huangjie, her friend from the bank, her friend's husband and three friends of theirs, Andrea, Laura, Deborah, and I all went to Huangjie's friend's coffee shop for Spaghetti and coffee. We couldn't all sit together because the tables weren't big enough, but it was really fun to just hang out with the girls and all the food was delicious. They even served us steak! Deborah also told us that you could rub the white part of the watermelon rind on your skin and it would make your skin nice, which (to her dismay) we all took great pleasure in trying for ourselves at the table. And it does feel excellent, I highly recommend it. Deb recommends it in the privacy of your own home. I feel like its up to your own discretion.
The next day I went with Laura to a performance put on by the disabled association in Chengdu, which some of her sign language friends were performing in. Different groups performed Tibetan dancing and signing, Kung fu, contemporary dancing and signing, and the like. I was really impressed. However, it was REALLY HOT. Just sitting and watching (it was outside) we were sweating buckets! Then we went to a tea house for some study time before I went to rugby and she went to sign language class. I played scrabble after rugby, like always, but I didn't win. I didn't lose either though, so that's OK.
Now I am just looking forward for Alex to come tomorrow night! I am going to try to go to the Orthodontist as well tomorrow because my bottom retainer came loose on one side last week and I found out the location of a good Orthodontist here in Chengdu, so wish me luck. Well, now I am going to sleep in this sweltering heat. I need to buy a fan. Good night.