The Wandering Monkey

What is it, 9 days now?
So far so good. I am getting to the point where I don't miss it so much. My dancing is improved and I think I am over the physical withdrawal. There have still been times, every day, in which I want to get a smoke.

I am right now in an Internet Cafe near my house. The people here know me. I am here almost every day. Whenever I am bored and don't want to hang out alone at home, I come here. I play computer games, check my email, work on Shanghai Swings stuff, and do this blog.

I feel much better in these last two days. This past Saturday we took one of my students to the Dong Jia Lu fabric market. It's a pretty cool place. There are at least one hundred fabric cubicles in there in which people have rolls and rolls of fabric. Also, buttons an other things needed for clothes. You go out there, pick out a fabric you want, then talk to a tailor and tell him what you want to have made.

The purpose of the trip was to make a zoot suit for one of my students. We decided on a basic black pinstripe, double-breated zoot suit with vest. It's going to look pimpin', as they say. We also picked the fabric and gave the tailor our designs for the Shanghai Swings bowling shirt. It's going to be an old, pale blue with black collar and trim. We will have the Shanghai Swings logo embroidered on it, plus the person's name on the pocket and some stars as well. I designed the shirt based on an existing bowling shirt I got in San Fran Bay Area.

I have not been going out to the bars as much as I had before. I'm just not having much of a taste for it lately. It's always the same, always expensive, and I keep waking up with a hangover.

My friend from college is going to arrive here in one week. I have not seen her since we both graduated. She's coming with her husband and staying one week in China. She's the first visitor who has come to China specifically to stay with me (or, more accurately, to have a cheap place to stay!).

-J