The good life.

It seems like things are really shaping up. I added pages to my passport so that they could give me my visa, and hopefully I'll get that back soon! I also got permission to come late to orientation so that I can go to Jon and Emily's wedding! I almost feel guilty about it, but I'm glad I'll be able to see all of Dan's family now. After knowing about it for over a year, I would have been upset if I couldn't go. To top it all off, I got my flight changed so I'll be coming home a little earlier!

Last weekend, Dan and I stayed at our apartment and had another barbeque Saturday night. We were sort of celebrating his birthday and another friend of ours at the same time. After stuffing ourselves, we went out salsa dancing. We all had a great time, but Dan and I realized that we could definitely use some lessons. Any salsa teachers out there?

On Sunday, we met my co-teacher, Lena, at "Computer City" (a gigantic electronics market). She was there to help us buy an electronic dictionary for Dan's birthday. There were loads of dictionaries on offer, but that didn't make it easy. We ended up getting one that you can write the characters into (as long as you're fast enough... no pretty handwriting allowed) and it shows you a bunch of options for words. You can see the pronunciation and hear the words. It's a pretty cool toy. Needless to say, Dan takes it everywhere now. On the bus, he busies himself by translating the advertisements stuck to the ceiling. Oddly, almost all of them are medical adds. Some of the gems he translated with his new toy were "prostatitis" and "can't have baby disease" (we're pretty sure that last one translates to infertility, but Lena was all embarrassed when Dan said it, so we're still not sure).

Other than that, I've been trying to do more running. I was inspired, in large part, because Trillium (a high school friend who didn't really do sports) recently ran a half marrathon. I don't know if it is possible to get back into shape anymore, though. I mean, I can still run, but it's a 10 minute mile, not 7. In spite of having run 4 mornings out of the past week, I don't feel like I've made any progress! By the end of the summer I'd like to be able to run a few miles without dying, but right now, the fourth lap still kills me. I'd like to blame it on the pollution, which probably does play a part, but it seems I really only have my fat butt to blame.