I like weekends

Kunming has been really windy lately, and it rained on Sunday for the first time since I moved here at the beginning of February. It rained for maybe 15 minutes, I was playing frisbee at the time, and it was really fun, except for the slight problem of not having cleats and therefore not having any grip at all on the slippery wet grass.
On Friday I finished two big projects that I had been working on all week long. It was very satisfying. My boss also was preparing to leave to go back to the states for 6 weeks, so it was kind of a crazy day. I also went out on Friday night, which is always an absurd, silly and extremely amusing thing to do in Kunming. There is always techno music, many people creatively dancing mostly with themselves, cheap Chinese beer (大里啤酒）， and just a lot of interesting characters. Kunming is bursting with people who make me laugh. Of course, often times they are not trying to be funny. But that is not the point.
The other thing about going out in Kunming is that the "metaphorical party" does not start until midnight or so. Leaving me to always have that moral dilemma around 11:45pm when I am faced with the decision of going out or going to bed. However, interesting things tend to happen when I leave my apartment, and so I try to remember this fact when sleep seems too tempting. On Saturday I met up with a Chinese friend who I met when I was registering for my class. He is a really interesting kid. He is half Han Chinese and half Bai minority, one of his grandfathers is Russian, his parents are both artists, and he is studying Spanish. Also, each time we meet up he brings along another interesting friend for me to meet. On Saturday I met his half Chinese half Thai friend who is studying English and loves Hannah Montana. Most of the day was spent with them speaking English and me speaking Chinese. Which is nice because it puts everyone at a disadvantage, everyone sounds silly together, and therefore everyone is on an even playing field. They both speak English really well though, and like to use corny English sayings like "Know yourself" (认识自己). We also spoke some Spanish, which made my brain hurt. Some German was thrown into the mix as well. My very very limited Thai is also pretty rusty, so I embarrassed myself a fair amount with that. Then there is the local dialect of Kunming (kunminghua) which basically sounds like Mandarin that has been put through a food processor. Also, when my new friends pick up the phone, they greet eachother in Japanese. If you are curious what this sounds like, it is something like "mohshy mohshy" where the 'oh' sound is similar to the sound that seals make. I can't think of any other (possibly less offensive) way to describe it.
So all in all it was a very interesting day. We sat in a smoke filled coffee shop for many hours (nearly every male in China smokes along with the girls who think that they are particularly cool) before venturing down the street to eat some Kunming specialty "across the bridge noodles." There is a cute story about a girl carrying these noodles across a bridge to her husband who was working on the other side. They are also a fun and interactive eating experience because you are given a bowl of boiling broth, a bowl of cold rice noodles, a plate of raw meat and vegetables, and a little thing of spices and then you mix them all together yourself. They are delicious and 12 yuan (less than 2 dollars).
On Saturday night I slept 12 hours. I just wanted to brag about that.
On Sunday I played Frisbee pickup in the rain and then we all went to eat dinner together, which is so much more fun than eating in a small group, because you order lots of dishes and eat all together and you get lots of variety of deliciousness.
Now it is the work week and I am getting up early for class and running errands and getting stuff done.
Soon my brobro will be here. Who votes that I put him on a 15 hour overnight bus ride? What about a 40 hour hard seat train ride? Oh the possibilities!