OK last night I had fusli with wild mushrooms! Oh, and a long island ice tea!

I ATE WITH A FORK AGAIN!  I am surprised I remembered HOW! 

Steve Lum, one of the English teachers, had a birthday party at Pastis down in the city.  There were 22 of us who enjoyed eating Italian food, listening to Christmas carols (my joke was that soon China will actually have a holiday on December 25th!), there were Christmas bells and a little wreath in each of the ash trays, the fu wu yuans (food handlers) all had Santa's helpers hats on and we were definitely in Christmas spirit! 

YES, there are Christmas trees in the stores and malls, ... who in the US wouldda thunk?!??

Laughing!  The cake was excellent too - though not enough candles, no worries (where are all the candles in China?!).

So rather than go to Starbucks for a coffee today, I think that I will stay home for a change!
(Note that I have been in Zha Bei or Shanghai City proper every day this week except Tuesday!).  Starbucks is just down the street, right next to one of the three KFCs and in the same complex as our grocery/semi-department store (where I bought my XXL parka).  Will go out for dinner later anyway, no doubt.

There is grading to do, PPT, etc. as I have lectures all day tomorrow and don't return until after 6 pm.  I believe the website is up to date but I will probably try to add another week - we'll see, maybe I WILL make it to Starbucks later! - I would like to get to the grocery store (Century Mart) anyway.  The store is just SOOO crowded during the day on Sat and Sun.  We had another store just out on the corner, but it was old and very much in need of refurbishing - so it closed a week after we arrived!  NOW it is all enclosed in green (the familiar color of construction scaffolding), I believe it is about 6 stories but I never counted!