Porn, Arabic Equipment, and other things...

* I went out with my boss for lunch the other day, and the waiter brought out some type of meat dish. 

Me: "What kind of food is that?"

Boss: "It's porn."

Me: "Huh?"

Boss: "Porn."

Me: "WHAT?"

Boss: "It's Porn. P-O-R-N. Porn. It's a type of meat."

Me: "Are you sure its called PORN?"

Boss: (Checks her English-Chinese electronic dictionary) "Oh, wait. It's called spare ribs."

* The same type of misunderstanding happened with my co-workers. They kept telling me about all the expensive Arabic equipment and Arabic classes that our club offers. "Wow." I thought, "You need equipment to learn Arabic?" No, turns out they meant AEROBIC. :-) 

* I met two super nice girls at a party at my school. Constanze is German, and Laura is French and English. We have been spending a lot of time together and it's great! We've been to the Yuyuan Gardens, to a "fake market" (where they sell fake brand-name things) and to several nightclubs. Sadly they are both leaving soon!

* I volunteered at the Shanghai Children's Medical Center this weekend. I met three other Chinese girls about my age, and I got to play with sick Chinese kids. Most of the kids were shy, and it was quite hard for me to communicate with them and their parents. But still, I made a few little friends, and learned Chinese words such as: headache, toothache, turtle (oo-guay like Kung Fu Panda Master Ooguay), kangaroo, dolphin, bear and chimpanzee). 

* Today I moved into my apartment next to the school. The other people here seem very nice, but my room is dingy and the bathroom STINKS. Next week I am moving to a nicer room in a different apartment in the same building. Me living in that room was the original agreement - but they somehow decided to stick me here for one week. Grr.