Ronald McDonald, Foreign Expert

My first day off was lazy and anticlimactic. I slept late, finally woke up and my electricity was out. I started to do my laundry, clung to the machines in desperation that my jeans would walk off with one of the perfectly innocent cleaning ladies. I really must learn more of the language, if not to be able to communicate so that I understand what everyone is so angry about. The woman who overcharges me for her sweet, clementines yells every morning at me like I'm robbing the fruit stand of it's fortunes. I respond to her mystery commands with something like "no problem" or "why thank you" and she does an evil chuckle and continues to yell while I pay her ten-fold what the next Chinese customer would pay and then continues to yell until I turn the corner. Which brings me back to the women in the laundry room, all going about their business, one washing her All Stars with a sponge, another throwing her 101 dalmation sheets (same ones I had as a babe!) into the dryer , all not terribly suspicious activities but they all yell while doing it, making me question the safety of my faux hippie tunics without my hovering presence. So, after three hours of my clothes in the dryer I got bored pretending to read in the laundry room, called it a day, packed the wet clothes and hung them around my room like a true Chinese . Amazingly, I was able to communicate to the woman at the front desk that my electricity was out and even more impressive I had it back within five minutes. I also found a coffee shop across the street with cappucinos and a "Supreme New York hot dog" with Bacon (2 pieces), Sausage, Cheese, Onion, Pickles atop "two slices of white bread salty toast". If that doesn't whet my appetite I can also try the salami panini offered next door. Such tempting options, although I finally settled on dumplings for linner. On a usual day there are atleast 4 dumpling places open down the street from my school however today all but one were closed because of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year is like if Christmas and Fourth of July met, did psychedelic drugs, and had an overdose. Almost every restaurant is closed for weeks and buses and trains have been sold out for months. A nation literally exploding with people has fireworks for sale on every corner, whole firework floors in grocery store, and pop up shops with an odd resemblance to Dairy Barn (must be all the red) in between. Because Vietnam has their own New Year's and requires a visa to enter, I've finally succumbed to staying in Hangzhou for the holiday. I know, poor terrible me in China for Chinese New Year. I guess there could be worse things, amirite? I also found a McDonald's in the spot where an online expatriot website told me Sunnyside Gym was located. Oh well, Ronald wins again. I was reunited with my passport, and I got a sweet "Foreign Expert Certificate" and Health Certificate that diagnosed me with something called Sinus bradycardia, not sure what this means but the certificates make me feel so bidnass as I'm listening to MIMS, my wet clothes draped around my dorm room, wondering how many calories are in a Chinese cappucino..surely less than in a Starbucks one, right?