Anyone ready for Round 7?

Bare with me, I was writing my post-Thanksgiving dinner blog, but was distracted. So, I'm picking up where I left off.

I just got back from the Thanksgiving Dinner sponsored by EAP, the "piece de resistance" of the EAP arranged dining events, and let me tell you, it was really all it was hyped up to be. The hotel itself was something to be 骄傲(arrogant) about. It was called Kempinski, one in a line of very, rich and extravagant German hotels. Inside the hotel, as expected, were marble floors, huge stair cases, rich expats, and rich foreigners. But what we were concerned most about was the restaurant: Kranzlers, noted to be one of few 5-star restaurants in Beijing.

The meal was delicious. I had about 6 plates, including 1 or 2 plates of desserts, which is a oddity in my diet. I ate so much that I felt like I was going to PUKE, I seriously stood up and walked around looking at the unyielding flow of food for about 20 minutes to make sure I didn't feel too sick or disgusting. Having this dinner, finally thanks to the efforts of the annoying guys who complain about EVERYTHING, we were able to have a nice dinner and give thanks for the things around me. I really felt nice at the dinner because it had really been a long time since I was in this type of fine dining with friends environment, though this time there was no family to help celebrate it. Something about the dinner just made me feel really happy and close to all the friends that I was with. Maybe it was because I was sharing a really great meal with a bunch of friends that I'd just made from my already 5+ months here in Beijing. Though Beijing has been really awesome and the learning experience in CHINA has been amazing, I think it's about time to go back.

Things I'm grateful for:
1) Friends celebrating Thanksgiving away from their homes in a nice restaurant.
2) The Peking duck served at the restaurant.
3) The desserts, ice cream and surprisingly the pecan pie.
4) Going home soon.
5) Experiencing the wonders of studying abroad, for real. Not a vacation.
6) Learning to really appreciate what I have at home after seeing China's poverty.

I think being in China has been a really good learning experience for me, not only in terms of studying abroad but as maturing as well. I know that sounds kind of corny but I guess being in China, during my 19-20 age shift was also important. I DO feel older and more wise, and I think that's a good thing. Seeing some of the things here and hearing about the bad economic status back at home has made me a lot more humble and look at things in a different perspective. All in all, I would say this trip AND the Thanksgiving dinner were perfect.







Now for some bad news:

To much disappointment, new reviews are back regarding the Blackberry Storm. Prior reports had shown evidence and reports that the new Storm was going to be a powerhouse for multimedia AND Blackberry famous interconnectivity. NOT! It turns out that it's very slow and sub par. Nick tested out the actual thing in the Verizon store a couple days ago and reported that, when trying to flip the phone to the horizontal state to view the options horizontally, it took up to 3 seconds for the phone to catch up and send the message to turn the screen. Not only that, but it turns out the OS is also glitchy and that it makes some messes along the way. They say it still is a good multimedia phone, but there still are a lot of things to be worked out before it can be great. Looks like I won't be looking forward to getting this phone anymore, as if I was anyway. HAHA.