1on1 Mandarin redeems itself; If you're not a professional athlete don't play basketball for 2 hours straight if you're 30 years old

So it seems the 1on1 Mandarin saga has come to an end. They have redeemed themselves in that they have offered to discount my remaining 70 hours of lessons in an effort to compensate for the fiasco which took place a week or so ago. In addition, apparently on Friday of last week, Mike (the source of all the trouble), was forcefully bought out of his stake in the firm and is no longer involved in the day to day operations. Now, I do not think that my situation was the catalyst for the event, but I can't help to think that a bit of karma was in play here.

I played basketball with a bunch of guys from my finance class on Monday afternoon. We played for 2 hours straight, my lungs were fine the entire time, and I didn't tear an ACL, sprain an ankle, or get a tooth knocked out. That's a victory in my book. Having fun, getting exercise, and avoiding a foreign hospital are all "wins".

This photo - a couple of my 3-on-3 teammates/adversaries:

This photo - the other end of the court where a bunch of undergrads were playing:

Waking up Tuesday though was a different story. I haven't been this sore in ages. I feel like I must have been using a few muscles in my legs that were on the verge of atrophy. What's sad though is that I am in good shape, and I still feel this way. I guess that makes a case for smoking 2 packs a day and being 25lbs overweight. If that was my current state I don't think I would have been able to go full speed for 2 hours, and hence wouldn't be as sore. Hmmmmmm....

I met a really nice pair of people last night while I was walking around. I was on the far end of my neighborhood where I had never been before and I was trying to locate a restaurant I had read about. So we're wandering around and a guy comes up to us and says, "Are you two twins? My friend and I have a bet that you two are twins". Now, it must be stated that they had only seen Jon and I from the back, so I guess they saw two 5'7"ish guys both w/ curly brown hair and simply made an assumption. We laughed, said no, and then asked them if they knew of the place we were looking for. They said "no", but said they'd help us find it. So Liu Zheng (guy) and Summer (girl) guided us for 15 minutes until we zoned in on the establishment. We hung out for a while with them. Really nice people. Maybe I am biased because they gave me a self-esteem boost when they argued that I couldn't be a day older than 25 years. I guess I still have those boyish good looks. Or at the very least, boyish looks.

I am going to make a best effort and try and hang out with them again later this week. It will be nice to have a true Beijing native as a friend here. I can practice some Mandarin with him/them, and they can show me the hidden secrets of this city.

Liu Zheng an aspiring organic chemist who is studying DNA and genetic manipulation (yikes!) and Summer an aspiring diplomat and translator