weekend.

hey there

  well we jst got in from the day of seeing a few more factories and such...it was long, not very exciting at any particular point, but it was good nonetheless.  [and] now i 'm just digressing and chilling out for a bit.  no plans from now until we leave tomorrow at 12 to get back...not as a whole anyways, so i'm sure we'll just get dinner in another hour or so, maybe come back, and inevitably they'll wanna go out again tonight [these guys are consistent!]--and so we'll see how i feel about that later on...also, it's already sat. evening, and i've yet to get to work on my schoolwork that's due when we get back [test and essay] and then i have like this really intense preparation routine i do these days for the next week...nothing really serious except get all of my words and word lists and study sheets written and in order...just kinda saves me time throughout the day-to-day!  

as for recently, these past few days have just been on the road with the group touring rando-yet-successful businesses throughout a region south of ours.  some have been semi-interesting, some notsomuch.  all in all, they were eye-opening, as one company's sole purpose is to make the plastic displays that are seen in convenient stores for like nestle products, and also they make all of those display units of knobs/light switches/hooks/etc. that you see at home depot [silly me, i never thought about that having to be madE!?]  another company was the world's largest spinner of linen in the world i think.  i think he said they have 25% of the market globally, which is huge.  they source and process flax grown in europe near normandy, france, and redistribute the finished string/material to companies like armani, gucci, etc.  the head of sales, mr. son i think, let me and jordan ride around in his bmw while we were transferring from one location to the next...it was freakishly nice--not sure of the model--although i know i sat in the back on the right side and watched a little of kungfu panda on the right monitor...while jordan watched something else from the 6-dvd changer in the back console.  it was a great 6-7 min.  ha.  today we wrapped up with a lenses company called sunny optical...and they're the like largest optical lens company in china, and among the top 5 in the world...making all kinds of lenses from those in cameras to telescopes to cell phones to high-end machinery...it was pretty neat to hear about.  but again, all of the sights weren't exceptionally exciting to walk around in or anything...after all, we were just watching people work...which, reminds me...i think i've decided i just never wanna work!?  ha...it doesn't seem to be terribly fun the more i see it going on [and as i work at my internship as well!]

it's been a fun trip overall i guess though...i've just not gotten a real chance to catch up on my rest in awhile...and so most days i drain pretty easily...which doesn't help when all you're going to be doing is walking around a lot and be spoken to in chinese a lot...not ideal.  however, we've all had a good time, as we've seen some pretty cool cities.  i'm pretty sure i didn't take many pics, as i was always just tired and not in the mood [or when it's been raining...not ideal], but i think there'll be some good and funny ones of the group up soon.  ningbo [the city we're in now] is a really neat place.  it was once the most 'international' city, ahead of shanghai.  it's since been surpasses, but still remains to be a great place to visit [especially for me, since it's still pretty international is far as finding familiar food joints! :p].  maybe tonight i'll take my camera with me and take some more revealing shots...or in the morning if tonight's not too late...

speaking of food:  i've tried quite a few more things since i last mentioned it...just this trip, i've tried [some more than others]: octopus and rabbit [okay, so rabbit's nothing too crazy...but hey, it's me]  also, last night we went to a brazilian bbq restaurant--and it was phenomenal!  while i, of course, didn't take full advantage of all of the wonderful meats, i was pleasantly filled with the different chicken options, and some beef ones as well...it was a legit brazilian establishment, workers and all, and they even had a little filipino cover band that sang some great songs.  i had had a particularly bad day leading up to the meal, and so i wasn't really sure if i wanted to go or not...but i'm soooo glad i did!  being around other people and being forced to interact [along with a lot of great food] can really help lift your morale.  it was also jeremy's birthday, and so we all sang to him, and today we had his cake on the bus.  i sure wish we could eat that kinda food more often...as i told some of the others, it was definitely the best 'chinese food' i'd had since i'd arrived...ha!  it was a little expensive in chinese terms, but certainly not in american dollars.  i think it would have ended up being about...120RMB/person with a drink...so like...$18!  beat that texas de brazil!  :)

oh, and i gotta say, the other night while bubba was still here, we stayed up until at least 1am just refreshing the box score for the basketball game in murfreesboro.  i was sooo excited about the game, and was crushed when within like 2 seconds the game seemed back in our possession to being over, done, they win.  aghhh, i was soo sorry to see that happen, as i know they were truly worthy of the first championship in a long, long time.  so sorry, vikings.  i was really rooting for you...even from 7,000 miles away!

okay, well, i think i'm going to try and get some work done.  so i'm off for now...but i hope everyone's doing well, and that i'll get some more info on here asap.  the only other big news i know of is that sis is coming over in...about a week  from today!  so that's exciting...i'm looking very much forward to it!  except...i know that after she leaves, it'll be down to the last, long stretch, and i'll be by myself once again for a long time ... :( ... 

...再见 for now...

w/p

08:04pm.  03/21/09.  [ningbo].