Weather of today:
- Day: 27 degrees and cloudy
- Night 22 degrees

Sentence of today:
Happy Birthday:祝你生日快乐。
May your age be as the southern mountain and your happiness as the eastern sea: 寿比南山，福如东海。Shòubǐnánshān，fúrúdōnghǎi

Today's - Good to know:
Tipping is never done at cheap restaurants in mainland China. Smart, international restaurants will encourage tipping but it is not obligatory and it's uncertain whether waiting staff receive their tips at the end of the night. Hotel restaurants automatically add 15% service charge and some high-end restaurants may do the same.

Today's tip:
Have the right footwear before playing badminton! My second time I get a blister because of it.

Dish of today:
Mussels, Snails, sea cucumber.

Today's Historical fact:
South-north water diversion project:
Water is the lifeblood of economic and agricultural growth, but as China only possesses around 7% of the world's water resources (with almost 20% of its population), the liquid is an increasingly precious resource.

In a region of low rainfall, north China is facing a grim water crisis. Farmeres are draining aquifers that have taken thousands of years to accumulate, while Chinese industry is using three to 10 times more water per unit of production than developed nations. Meanwhile, water usage in large cities such as Beijing and Tianjin continuous to climb as migrants move in from rural areas. By some estimates, the aquifers of north China may only have another 30 years of lift left.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains hypnotised by monumental engineering projects as solutions. To combat the water crisis, the CPP embarked on the construction of the US$62 billion South-North Water Diversion Project, a waste network of rivers, canals, and lakes lashing north and south. The logic is to divert surplus water from the Yangzi River to the dwindling and long overexploited Yellow River.
The project has been snared by complications. There are concerns that pollution in the Yangzi River waters will become progressively concentrated as water is extracted, while Yangzi cities such as Nanjing and Wuhan are increasingly anxious they will be left with less water. Alarm had also arisen at the pollution in channels - including the Grand Canal, which linked Hangzhou with north China - earmarked to take the diverted waters. There are worries that these polluted reaches are almost untreatable, making elements of the project unviable.
Critics also argue that the project, which will involve the mass relocation of hundreds of thousands of people, will not address the fundamental issue of China's water woes - the absence of policies for the sustainable use of water as a precious resource.

My day:
Today was one of the best days I have had in China but also the day when I felt the most sad in the end. Went to two birthday dinners today, the family said they would pick me up at noon, but didn't really explain what the occasion was. We arrived to a dinning place, was let into a room with two big round tables, said Hi to a lot of people, and it was a good friend of Wang Qi's birthday I found out later after Li Guannan arrived, she explained me everything. Hehe. Typical Chinese not to tell where we are going, they just bring me. But it is a big honour that they even take me with them, and every one of the guests were very curious about who I am, where I'm from, what I'm doing and so on. There was an overload of food, another typical Chinese thing, and ate a lot of things I hadn't tried before, e.g. snails, different types of mussels, sea cucumber. Defiantly not my favourite, but I should try it. And thing a lot of the others had a great laugh looking at my face expression while eating it. Hehe. After drinking some beer, I walked up to the other table, where the host, the more important people, and of course the birthday girl (A woman in her 40'ties) and gave my congratulations in Chinese. Everyone was very fond of that. All the men also started to come over to me, to welcome me, and cheer with me. It was very funny. And I did the same with them. I tried Baijiu, Chinese liquor, often 50 vol % +. It tasted quite okay I think, but preferred the beer. I also tried Chinese red wine. Quite good, should just have been a bit colder. One guy especially liked me, and said he wanted to get drunk, and he wanted to drink with me, so he came up to me, every second minute, to cheer with me, luckily it was only Dalian beer, which is really drinkable, and only 2,5 % vol. Im use to drink many beer, so not problem for me, he ended up sitting next to me, filling one cup up after another, and every time we cheered with the glasses, we had a little fight who could get the glass the lowest, empty our cups every time while looking the other in the eye, think we ended up drinking 3 x 600ml beers each in a time period of 5 minutes. I said I wanted to go for a pee, and then he said, you can only go if you declare I won. I just said no, sat down on the chair again, took another bottle, and then we started again. Was so funny. I ended up winning. He said, we can go now. You win. And when we went to the toilet, the first thing he did was to throw up. Couldn't stop laughing inside.

After having a little break for half an hour, they took me to a gym to play badminton, so half drunk I played badminton with the guy I just competed with drinking beer. So weird and funny. He didn't play so well, so I played with one of the guys sons, a 13 years old kid, he was okay, but I beat him, and afterwards I played with the kid's dad. He was on a completely different level, so he won easily, and when he won, I could feel a blister under my food, again. I cot a really ugly blister the same place as last time, but this time it was bleeding to, it was really painful afterwards.

From the one party, Wang Qi drove me home so I could pick up my special blister plaster, it really helped, but didn't have time for anything else, because we should attend to DeSheng's granddads birthday dinner in another dinner/hotel/restaurant down town. It was a bit overwhelming getting into the room, think 20 people sat around this huge round table, also in classic Chinese style, I went around and said nicely hello to everyone, including the "birthday boy". There were served really nice food, also a birthday cake, and birthday noodles. There is a special saying in Chinese: may your age be as the southern mountain and your happiness as the eastern sea. This is commonly said as birthday congratulations to an elderly person. So after eating for a while, including more beer and baijiu, I went up the granddad, and said the phrase in Chinese. Everyone was surprised I could say this and applaud happily. A guy also stood up, and wanted to take pictures of me cheering with the old, very mild "birthday boy". Was again a great experience. He also welcomed me in his little speech before the dinner began. Really a big honour. And I'm so thankful to the family, for their gentleness, and especially for their warm hospitality.
At the dinner I talked a bit with DaSheng's cousin. A big guy, a bit higher than me, but double as big, not often you see such a big Chinese guy. But he was very nice to talk with, really a nice calm boy in the age of 18. We agreed to hang out tomorrow.
Later I went to Momi café to use the Wifi, sat there and was in a really strange mood, have had a really good day, but just missed home, and especially missed my boyfriend. I bit hart to be away from him for so long. Was nice to chat with him on Whatsapp. It made my mood much better. While sitting there chatting, and guy bumped into be with his chair from behind. Young guy 18-20 years old I think. Quite cute looking. He said sorry in Chinese, and it opened up for a little conversation. He asked me where I was from, and what I was doing. He was sitting with his mom, and they had to leave right after, so he asked for my email, and gave me his. Chinese really wants to make foreign friends.

At home, sitting in bed writing before going to sleep.

Goodnight!


Ps: I miss you Vince!