So we got new furniture during the holidays - all the foreign teachers in our building did, which is all 32 of us. I had my office chair half-built, sprawled on my living-room floor for a few days before I left for Vancouver in early January. My new king-sized TV was still packed, my table hadn't been set up... In their usual efficient way, the Chinese had started giving me my new furniture, but left it half-way done and didn't touch it for at least a week until after I left.

When I came back to Beijing with Nicole in late January, everything was ready but...the two single beds that they give us had these unbelievably thin - and therefore very hard - mattresses. Although not ideal for reading in bed comfortably, I didn't have any problems sleeping.

Some teachers did. And complained.

Enough for administration to go to the trouble of changing our mattresses. A notice was put up in the entrance, stating that the "tentative time" for mattress changing was going to be either Thursday or Friday and we were to prepare our beds. So I did.

I came home from work at 4 PM on Thursday and had no mattresses.

Around 6 PM, a couple guys came in with the new mattresses and they plunked them down on my beds, plastic wrap and all. I broke a couple nails taking the plastic wrap off the mattresses and then making my bed myself. I lead such a hard life....

To tell you the truth, the new mattresses are not that much thicker than the old ones, and aren't particularly softer, although among teachers we tell ourselves that "with time" they'll be "broken in" and become more comfortable. However, that process might take years.

In other news, I gave my first lesson to my "adult class" Thursday afternoon. They're a nice bunch, although quite large - maybe around 30 of them, or more.

Last night I went to listen to reggae at a club near the Worker's Stadium called Yu Gong Yi Shan. We've been there at least three times. The music's always the same, but I like it a lot - it really lifts me up and puts me in such a great mood. Reggae rocks.

Tonight is Katia's housewarming. She moved into a new apartment with a Russian girl and a Ukranian girl. They speak Russian together. Between the three of them they invited around fifty people, but we'll see how many show up...

It's an amazing 16 or 17 degrees here in Beijing. All of a sudden it's spring. I was walking around in a t-shirt with my jean jacket, while two days ago I was still shivering in my down winter coat. Crazy.

And since nothing particularly exciting has happned to me lately, I'll tell you what Matt, the American teacher, saw just outside North Gate the other day. He was coming back from the dry cleaner's when he heard this loud whipping sound. He saw a guy on his carriage whipping his horse like a maniac, and the horse was galloping full speed ahead into the particularly busy intersection just outside Erwai's North Gate (Erwai's the name of our university). Then there were eight police guys in uniform running after him (on foot), and typically looking totally confused and disorganized. They yelled at the driver of one of those small motor bikes that can carry up to three people a short distance, to let them use it to catch the guy - they wouldn't go for any of the numerous fast cars found everywhere on that street... Matt saw the horse and carriage make a left at the intersection - which was full of cars veering out of the way and pedestrians running away. What a mad dash. It sounded so funny. Wish I were there to take a video...

I'm going to work on collocations with my students this week. For those of you who don't know, collocations are a set of words - usually two - that are usually found together, they just "go" together and sound right, and it's hard to say why, it just is. Like we say "take a break," (not "do a break"), "turn in your homework," "make an appointment" (not "take an appointment"). CITY OF GOD inspired me at 2 o'clock in the morning, early Friday...or maybe it was the new mattress...