No More Mari

This morning I had a lovely brunch with Mari and Ta. We ate at Salvador’s, a local cafe that caters to Westerners. I had a huge bowl of yogurt, granola, and fruit, along with a bagel and cream cheese. Mari and Ta went with the eggs, potato, fruit, and wheat roll. Good food. Ta says that she doesn’t tend to run into cafes like this in Beijing, so she was especially enthusiastic about sitting down to some Western food this morning. We are good eaters. We have had a great time consuming all manner of things together over the last few days. Lots of hot peppers, lots of fish, and always a little eggplant (my favorite).

They were both off today for Laos. So sad to see them go, especially after spending the last 5 weeks with Mari. Of course, she’s relieved I think because her time here has been packed with intense language study (over 20 hours a week in class!). I think they’ll have a good time in Laos. Getting away from China will do them both good.

I spent the afternoon scrubbing clean my entire dorm room, removing everything from drawers and shelves. I have a vague hope of moving in temporarily with a super cool woman I met the other day, Shannon, but mostly I just need to clean. Psychological? You bet. Everyone around me is in transition, and I’m really longing to get out of this dorm and live with Jeremy. I really want some movement!

Oh, by the way, I think I cured my glumness. I bought some oil paints and spent a few hours the other day painting figures from photos I found online. They weren’t my most fabulous work, since I’m totally out of practice, but it really is so rewarding to lay paint down paper. I can’t tell you why.