window washers and family pop trios.

sooo...looks like this will the be last post for a few days.  we're heading out of town right after testing tomorrow morning to hit the road headed south to a small town...well, maybe a village?  maybe just outside on of these things??  anyways, we're headed south to lin'an near hangzhou for the weekend to go camping!  we're not going to be up to much besides just hiking a little, playing cards or tossing the 'bee, reading, doing homework [obviousLy], and i guess just chillaxin'.  i'm not sure if this is to be a 'chinese weekend' or if it'll be like our past weekend trips where we're allowed to throw in some english, too! [ha]  either way...it should be interesting!  [and beautiful]

so no electricity, meaning no computer, no phone, no ipod if/once the battery runs out! :p, and most impactful--no f.r.i.e.n.d.s!!! :o ...

anyways, lemme stop and start with a few more random things from today-ish:

• so this morning when i woke up [an hour late, pressed for time...having apparently subconciously turned off my phone's alarm] i had a few remnants of my dreams in mind, and so i jotted 'em down on my treo.  having done this a few times before, i can attest to it being one of the most interesting things to start one's day off doing.  i mean the words and nonsense i can somewhat remember enough to type in while i'm still coming-to...yeah that stuff's a real pick-me-up later in the day!  nothing like reading "pandas...cold stone...swing dancing...funnel cakes"...[just an example...of course...ha] and wondering what in the world was going on in there!?  haha, anyways, today's dream was a little more vivid, and i actually still remember it somewhat for once...but the note said "bus/mini-bus in the subway...run"...haha, and so basically, from what i recall, i was walking down one of the freakishly long staircases here in the shanghai subway stations leading down to lines far, far below...and then all of the sudden i heard something and turned to look back up the stairs...only to find that on one side of the now-expanded staircase there was a full-side greyhound-like bus just rumbling down the stairs at a pretty fast pace...i tried to forcefully halt it's movement, if i remember correcty.  then as i tried to avert the disaster to the left, i encountered a second, smaller 'mini-bus' filling in the gaps almost perfectly.  and so i ran and ran down what felt like an escalator going the wrong way!  all i could remember thinking was how i hoped once i made it to the level ground, that the buses would lodge themselves due to the incline...but when that didn't happen...well, that's about where it ended! ha.  nothing too crazy, but needless to say, having that memory to revert to during the hum-drum of today's class/events...it was amusing!  i'll try to continue to jott those thoughts down [if i can remember!]
• the 2nd thing i remember about today was how when i was walking to work today, i was waiting across the huge intersection near my work for the little green guy to pop up so i could continue...and while waiting, i felt this like...rain-like material hitting me sporadically.  i looked everywhere, and with today being especially clear and sunny, i hadn't the slightest clue what was happening!  luckily [well, not really] the lights take forever, so i had a little more time to figure this whole thing out...suddenly, it occured to me to look higher up...or farther away...and low-and-behold, i saw a crew of window washers suspended on their individual little chair-things on the side of the huge tower my office is locating within.  so it all started to make perfect sense [which, in turn, kinda made me realize how gross that essentially was] but then, i was sooo overly-amazed.  i mean, my building was a good 200-300 yards away from me...and they were probably like 30-40 floors up...and little droplets were still hitting me across this huge 10 or 12 lane road...it was soo weird! ha
• something i forgot to mention yesterday was how i learned that an old friend of mine, ben, just got a new job.  well, let me stop there.  he has a j-o-b.  and not like a summer-thing or something to do in the afternoons...no no...ben now has an official 'big-boy-job'...which is sooo wierd!  anyways, turns out he got hired right down from vanderbilt on west end...which is really cool--and for which i was excited to hear.  it's going to be nice to have another good friend in town sometimes to kinda be able to enjoy nashville with a little more often.  should be some good times.  

 and well, that's about all i have down as notes from the day.  the only thing left to do now is to...[1] wrap this baby up. [2] finish up this latest episode of f.r.i.e.n.d.s [which, bTw, is kinda sad in a way...i'm on disc 13 of 16...looks like it's all coming to an end...again...soon! :(  what ever will i do!?  haha], and then get some sleep for a few hours.  it's about 2am now, and i need to probably get back up at about 6 to get some better last-minute/hours studying/cramming...and also to make sure i'm fully packed before i head off to class.  after all, jeremy said we're leaving as soon as the last test is completed...and who always is last to finish?? yeah, that's right...typical i know!

alright, well, i don't know what else to say, except so long for now.  i'm about to shut'er down, and call it a week/end until probably sunday sometime.  hopefully i'll have some great photos [which, bTw, i know i haven't updated/uploaded any in well...a very long time...who knows, maybe someday right!? ha] and some good stories from our weekend on the mountain.

not sure why, buy i'd like to end with a few songs that i either can't get out of my head, can't stop listening to, or simply coming to mind right now for some weird reason:

"alright" -- darrius rucker

"this is how we do it" -- montel jordan

"word of God speak" -- mercyMe

"mmmbop" -- hanson [and no, i haven't even heard this in years...i mean...ever...ha, but i think it's just because it was in an article i read today about a settlement for illegal downloads in new york...off all the songs they could have listed as having been 'stolen'...'mmmbop' was undoubtedly one of them! :p ]

okay...gotta go...eyes are starting to cross! :)...

to a wonderful weekend...加油!

w/p

[2:02am].  [04/30/09].  [shanghai].

第五天