See that? That's the fan. See that brown stuff all over the place? That's the SHIT!

Yes, I rather like that analogy. When it rains, it pours, and when shit hits the fan...well, all you can do is grab a scraper and suck it up. Sigh. THIS one's a story! So, we've been busy here and there. A few EAD's, a few field trips, like visiting a pin gallery. I don't know the official name, but they make pins for like, everything, from Disney to tourist attractions around the world, and now, the Olympics. It's a 3 billion yuan company. A little impressive. We also learned that emperors in ancient China had thousands of concubines (women lovers) and had no personal time. Quite amazing.

I was invited to Kassie's school to help her class in a workshop with group dynamics (my specialty) I played some games with her students that were supposed to help them with group functionality, from non-verbal communication, to thinking outside the box to team work. It went very well, and was the first work I had actually done here. Ironically enough, today is when I'm supposed to do work. As far as I know, I'll be meeting-bitch; serving tea, writing peoples names, and then probably start staring into space when they talk. Yay!

I also had a meeting with our work supervisor, regular supervisor, Director Wang, his assistant and Gary. What I thought was supposed to be a check-up turned out to be, what I was told, more of a diplomatic meeting. We met in a meeting room, they would talk in Chinese, usually looking or pointing at me, the assistant would occasionally translate for Maxime, and then they would talk to me. They asked 3 great questions. "Hows the food at home?" "Are you cold at night?" "How are you finding Canada's government in comparison to China's?" Are you fucking kidding me? I was a little shocked. I'm glad I at least told them I wasn't thrilled that I was doing so little, because I wanted to tell them SO much more. Anything to do with counterpart relations or do I get along with my host dad would have opted for a much longer meeting. Same old things though, nothing grand and new. I barely see or talk to Gary, and Li...yeah, well, he still doesn't understand that I don't understand like 95% of what he says, but keeps on talking. I was also a bit pre-occupied, because just prior to the meeting, there was screaming. Turns out, a drunken man came into the office, broke things and I'm guessing touched a woman. Just your average day at the office I guess.

Some other great events include going to a dance class organized by Andy's work placement. We did some "modern" dance. It was utterly hilarious. Our group, in my opinion, can't dance or sing. Thank god we're pretty. We've also went to tea houses, where for a thrifty 18 yuan, you can have unlimited drinks and ice cream! The ice cream sodas were delicious. We pigged out.

And then, the story. It was all innocent. Felix and I went to a small party through Stephane and Heather's workplacement, where they had a small skit to perform. There were dancers and singers and lip-synchers, and some small games that the four of us participated in. We were given soap and toothpaste as prizes. Hey, don't laugh. Perfectly enough, that's exactly what I needed! I was running out. In the afternoon, we planned to go to Sunlitun and get suits, tailored and made, real cheap! I took some money out for it, but later decided I didn't need one. A tailored suit is nice, but I won't need one for like, a LONG time. I'm going a bike trip! So I passed. The plan that night was for the guys to stay the night at Maxime's apartment after a night of drinking. We stopped at the Hidden Tree for a beer and pizza ( I miss pizza) and then went to The Red Rose, a Muslim restaurant that Maxime told us about. The food was awesome, and the bai jiu, cheap. The entertainment, better! There was a singer, and two belly dancers. One was really freaking hot. In fact, we noticed her when she walked in through the front door, before she was dressed up. She seemed to like our group just as much. She sauntered over and brought Stephane up stage! And so did the singer, and so did the other belly dancer. One belly dancer brought a snake on Maxime, and then brought all of us on stage to dance. At this point, the bai jiu is movement-activated. We were dancing up a storm, having a blast. By that point, the restaurant closed. As soon as we went outside, all hell broke loose. I was holding myself and one girl up, another guy puked, and before I knew it, we were sent back to our host homes in cab. I'll spare details. I woke up in my bed, with my host family around me, asking me if I needed to go to the hospital. Of course not, I was just drunk still! But it was still not a proud moment. After phoning my friends and filling in missing information, it didn't seem all was well. After sleeping to recover that afternoon, I discovered my wallet was missing. ID, debit cards, and yes, about 2500 yuan that I took out. Bad Devon, bad! I still shake my head. But what's done is done. I'm assuming it's in the cab still, or, if found by someone else, will be returned soon. My memory's a little fuzzy, and isn't helping the situation. It's sounding half and half that I'll get it back out of human kindness, or not because people are douche bags and steal money. Damn cab companies are no help. I didn't even know they gave receipts when I was sober, let alone drunk. So yes, details, blah. I'm taking the precautionary methods, cancelling debit cards, replacing ID when I get home, preventing identity theft, etc. Hey, if they want my life, they gotta take EVERYTHING that goes with it! I have photocopies of my ID's, so luckily, I think I can still get home. The circle check that day was one for the books. Most of us hung our heads in shame at the course of events. We apologized to our counterparts, to our supervisors, but especially to our host families. Bad Canadians, bad! You know what you did wrong. We talked about it, trying to justify, or more ratify our actions. We were having such a good time, we didn't realize how much we were drinking. Obviously, we hadn't planned on getting that drunk. I'm not too worried about my wallet. Sure, it sucks, but I know for a fact I'm not the first person to get drunk and lose their wallet in Beijing. Shoulda been more careful, but shit happens, you learn, you move on. Actually, I'm surprised this type of maturity is flow so naturally in this occasion. I mean, you can't beat yourself up forever, as most teenagers do stupid shit. A few of us got warnings and are being more careful. And me? I have a looooooooooooot of phone calls to make.