my birthday

After a harrowing night of drinking and hotpot (yes, hotpot) I was informed (again, see the previous post) that I would be traveling to the country on Saturday. Disappointed that I wouldn't be able to sleep in, I woke up hung over for a rollicking, incredibly bumpy ride into the country-side.

First thing I encountered of notice was this interesting plant growing next to corn in a farmer's field. Interesting...very interesting. I was told it was hemp, and only used for the rope and oil that is extracted from it. It was not 大麻 which those leaves might bring to mind.

We were taking a Beijing professor on a whistlestop tour of the country side, so we stopped at many places. The second was a village on the top a rise in a sweeping land. It was breathtaking.

After contemplating the view for a few minutes, we went inside to have ostensibly have lunch. Much to my surprise, my coworkers brought in a western style cake, complete with heaps of frosting. My friends were upset there weren't 25 candles, but I told them it would be okay. We ate the cake, and then started to play drinking games. Beer and sickly sweet frosting are delicious! After a few drinks, we ate lunch for real, which really was delicious...I just didn't quite like the order of the courses.

After that, and a few more beers, we hopped back into the car, and traveled one of our driver's homes where a group of college volunteers were staying. Drinking many beers and then getting into the backseat of an offroading SUV is never a good idea. But I was able to maintain composure.

For much of the time we drove next to an irrigation ditch which flowed throughout the countryside. It is by far and away the most water I've seen in Ningxia up to this point. It must have gone for miles, and in at least two places crossed valleys in huge aquifers. I cannot imagine the amount of physical labor that made this amazing construction.

Finally we arrived at the second village, and immediately I was pulled into another game of liar's dice, but thanks to some luck and some skill (if I say so myself) I was able to escape relatively unscathed.

We returned to Yanchi at about 3 and I rested for a few hours before I was picked up (again, not my plan) and taken to dinner. My plan was to have dinner with my friends at the office (read those do not make me drink), instead I went with a driver to meet his friends in a restaurant while my evening hangover set in. As the night went on, and the room filled with cigarette smoke, my mood steadily worsened. They had gotten me another cake (this one had happy birthday in English, as well as a dog! [my chinese zodiac sign]). This one I convinced them to eat after the meal. We played liar's dice again, but I refused to drink very much, so by the end, I was watching a bunch of drunk Chinese people speaking to fast for me to understand playing drinking games. Just the way I wanted to spend my birthday.

That curmudgeonenous aside, I'm sure they meant it to make me happy, so I tried to force a smile. Unfortunately, many of you know what a great poker face I have, so they may have had an idea about how I felt.

At least now I'm 25...and you know what that means...Hertz baby! Yeah!