Victory Noodles

When I got on the bus to go home this afternoon, I knew that my biweekly blog post would be overdue if I didn't post it today but I just didn't see how it was going to happen.   I woke up with the typical pre-cold sore throat, and all day, my brain's been fuzzy.  When trying to tally up quiz scores, I found that simple arithmetic was beyond my capabilities.  I'm way behind on grading (mainly because of my own laziness), and there are a thousand school things clamoring for my attention.  Finally, I'm behind on writing my letters of recommendation, and the first early decision deadlines are this Friday.

So I didn't think there was going to be a blog post.  But then my sickness led me to crave noodles, and I decided to try one.  More.  Noodle place.  Maybe this one will be different, I thought wistfully.  Maybe this time I'll find a great noodle place and then people will come visit me and I'll take them to the great noodle place and they'll say, "Hey, Becca, what a great noodle place!" 

I will admit that I didn't have a lot of hope.  But then?

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:  Victory Noodles.

Wide and chewy hand-pulled noodles with pulled pork and bok choy.  HECK YEAH.

Thank you, and good night.

New Breath

The weekend of September 21st was similar to most of my previous Beijing weekends.  I got up absurdly early on a Saturday morning to go into town do things for my new apartment.  The next day, I trucked out of Shunyi once again on public transportation to meet a friend and go on a bicycle tour of Lido.  So, waking up at an ungodly hour on a weekend:  check.  Running errands from Shunyi to Sanlitun:  check.  Energy-demanding social engagement:  check.  Same as it ever was.

But I noticed something new when I walked home from the bus that Sunday.

I wasn't exhausted.

Goals

This post was going to be about moving and settling into Beijing and how I don't feel exhausted all the time anymore and this one time when I walked into a noodle shop and asked for noodles and they took one look at me and gave me spaghetti with tomato sauce.  (Don't worry, that post is coming.  I've already started writing it.)

What changed, you ask?  Well, I'm listening to Janelle Monáe's new album, which is amazing, by the way, and makes me feel kind of bold and spiky (and if you haven't listened to Dance Apocalyptic while dancing around your place of residence like a crazy person, DO IT NOW).  And it's October break here in Beijing, so I've had a lot more time than usual to think about life, the universe, and everything.

But mostly it's that I met my grading goal for the afternoon.