November Wine Tasting

Bah! Weather! This week went from being so cold on Monday that I decided to buy a coat, to today wishing I hadn't worn this sweater. Oh Shanghai.

Wednesday evening I had a treat and webchatted with Elysse for about 2 hours. Course I ended up going to be at almost 2am cuz I am dumb face. But it was nice to talk with her.

Yesterday at work was fine. I finished watching A Knight's Tale with class 2. I was playing around with a tennis ball in the last ten minutes of class and was pretending to toss it to my students but did the "drop behind your back" trick. Which they asked me to do again...and again....and again. One student, Jackey, randomly wanted to arm wrestle with me (though he called it wrist wrestling). I asked if he was serious, then I figured why not. I beat him both right and left handed, but I don't know if it's because I really won or because he let me win as the teacher.

I also chatted with Alicia for a bit since I found out that google chat now has a webcam option. I was at work so I couldn't speak but it was nice to see her face and hear her voice during my lunch break.

I went back to my apartment after work for a quick snack to hold me over until I got to the wine tasting. I figured I would take the bus to the subway. I keep forgetting that 5:30 is the worst time for public transport. Ugh. First of all, the bus was so crowded that I had to stand on the steps. Then I had the most crowded subway ride I have experienced so far. I have joked about the people working at the Japanese subway that shove people onto the trains to make them fit. Well...that's what happened last night. I was standing next to a pole at the time and I feel like I should have a bruise running down the entire right ride of my body from being shoved into it by a mass of people. Aiya. Then I nearly got torn in half because I was right on the edge of people trying to get on the train and people trying to get off the train. Anyone here ever making a whirlpool in their pool and then try to hold onto the edge or get out? That's what it felt like, except it was people instead of water.

People are smart, right? Why do they try to shove their way onto a packed train when there is a wall of people trying to get OUT, thereby making plenty of room for them? Why do they instead try to force their way through? The doors aren't going to close while there are still people getting on and off, wait for 9 freakin' seconds! *deep breath*

Anyway, I got to the wine tasting relatively unscathed. I recognized some people from last time. Hehe, there was a guy who came over and said hi to me and I thought looked really familiar but I couldn't figure out who he was. Then I realized he was the one dressed up as Hilary Clinton for the pub crawl. I didn't recognize him without the wig.

Last night was super fun. It was good since I already knew people from last time so I was more relaxed. It made it easier to meet new people too. I was sitting next to Steve, from Australia and Isabelle from Germany. Only in Shanghai. :-) Steve was absolutely hilarious. I felt like a bad student sitting in the back of the room while the owners explained about the wine and Steve was just muttering nonsense under his breath to make me laugh. In one ear I was hearing about how old wines were usually a mix of different types of grapes but new wines are usually only one kind of grape. In the other ear I hear Steve saying, "Mm...that's interesting. Teaspoon. Roofing tiles. Syphilis." I completely lost it when we got our last dish of food, a plate with cheeses, meats, curried pears, marinated olives and a pat of butter for the bread. We were all munching and listening to the owners when suddenly Steve leans over to me and in a half frantic voice goes, "Stephanie! I just ate the butter!" Apparently he thought it was cheese. My cheeks were killing me by the end of the evening after grinning like a moron trying not to laugh out loud.

The wine and food were all delicious again. Isabelle made me feel even more like a bad wine student because she was taking notes all evening. All I wrote on my paper was my Chinese name because someone asked what it was. Oh well. It was still a lot of fun. I talked about knitting and a few people seemed interested in getting together and me teaching them how to knit. That would make me so happy. Also Ron, the guy I hung out with at the pub crawl may want to come to Nanjing with me and Charlotte. He'll hopefully be in Pudong on Sunday. He wants to go to the financial tower and I haven't been so I asked if I could tag along. I also told him he should come over and I could cook dinner. I want to cook something for someone, dang it.

I was writing this entry at work and I thought I wanted to add something to it before I posted it, so I saved it. Now I've forgotten what else I wanted to write about, so it's getting posted as is.

Love!