My New Grind

Last week classes got started and life itself started to take shape and seem normal. Monday started the week off with a funny start—as it was Valentine’s Day.
I woke up a little early—sevenish. I thought that would be enough time to surprise my sweetheart with a romance rendezvous. I was quick to get out of the shower, get out of my apartment and to the florist. Then I noticed something quite annoying: my wallet was empty.
I stopped at the ATM machine in the office of my apartment complex. The machine was slow with my card and I soon was suspicious something was up. I tried to cancel the transaction but I was not quick enough, the ATM had eaten my card. After cussing out the heavily fortified electronic cube and pressing every conceivable button five minutes had passed. The stubborn machine eventually gave up and I got my card back. Halleluiah.
Already a little late I ran down the block to another bank. I ran past bipedal commuters and students from Fudan all looking at me as if I was attending to some emergency. I got my money and ran (this time I think the commuters and students thought I robbed the bank) back towards my apartment building to the florist’s shop downstairs. The flower woman sold me some backstabbingly expensive roses and I flew off to find a cab. By now I was supposed to be at my girlfriend’s dorm wooing her with my adoring affection but I was late.
I found a cab but the young taxista couldn’t understand my directions so I left him and looked for another ride. I ran down the street again toward Fudan. This time I looked a little more pathetic with the roses flapping in my arms. I got a taxi and this time he did know where I was talking about and we drove through clogged freeways to SUFE.
I was twenty minutes late by the time I arrived at Shanghai University’s international dorms to find my very cold girlfriend waiting for her knight in fluffy North Face. I told her why I was late and walked her to her first class.
After I was done at Yuri’s, I had to go back to my university to have my first day of classes. I am now in the level above where I was last semester but still in the same class room with the same Chinese teacher. Our class was derived of everyone struggling over new characters and grammar patterns and most importantly getting used to listening to Chinese again.
After class I headed back to Yuri’s dorm to have lunch with her. We spent some time setting up a new bank account for her at Shanghaiese bank in the backstreets of her university and then we headed uptown to hang out at my apartment.
The focus of our Valentine’s Day was a dinner that I had planned in the French Concessions. Yuri had wanted to go to a nice Italian restaurant she knew so I made reservations and surprised her. At around six we got dressed up and headed downtown in a cab. Traffic was heavy but eventually we found Colabo’s at the end of a dark alley in a beautifully retrofitted consulate.
The restaurant was packed with Chinese couples. I approached the desk and said “We have a reservation for Anderson.” The waiter was busy but checked his list with a smile. He scrolled down his list of names—all of them in Chinese characters—and finally came to the conclusion that the restaurant did not call me back to reconfirm. He was very apologetic and polite and promised to find us a table anyway but I scowled at him with a look inherited from my dad (and perfected by my sister). I did this for about ten minutes until the waiter leaned forward with a relieved smile: “we have a table for you sir.”
We were escorted to the power corner where Yuri and I dinned on five courses and sipped house wine. I like most all the food except for the pig ears—Yuri didn’t tell me what they were until I had finished my gelatin square. For two hours we enjoyed our time but all good things come to an end sometime or another.
Valentine’s Day I worked out somehow.