christmas and new year's shenanigans

man these past couple weeks have been hard on the liver. first we had our dongmen christmas party, then we had actual christmas, then ben and mike's birthdays, then jess's birthday, then new year's eve. all within like, a week. absurd. anyways, here's an update:

christmas! ok, so christmas day itself was pretty shitty. we had a good lunch at a brazilian bbq place, but that was all we did and the rest of the day was spent hungover on an entirely too long journey home from the hotel. christmas eve, however, was awesome. now, back home christmas eve typically is just an awkward dinner at my uncle's house where we all have to pretend like we have something to talk about while my aunt's mom babbles about something nonsensical and occasionally there's awkward praying and/or communion. regardless, i love it and i really missed the holiday feel this year. if i couldn't be at home with family and friends however, this wasn't half bad. ctlc rented us all hotel rooms in a nice hotel and threw us a dinner. dinner sucked, but there was wine. in fact, we finished all the wine in the entire hotel. i also bought myself a christmas present of soco and diet dr. pepper. by the end of the night i'd say i drank about a bottle of wine and about a bottle of soco. i'm really hoping someone else drank some of the soco as teh bottle was literally empty and i don't remember sharing. oops? i also got royally fucked in a game of fuck the dealer when they handed me a full deck and then cheated by having someone look over my shoulder. i was drinking like 2 shots of soco per beverage and had to get 2 or 3 refills during the course of the game. i then started yelling about wanting to get my shit on and how people needed to start regulating. i don't really remember this, but it made me really homesick when my friend told me about it. i can't wait to get back to georgetown and yell "fuck regulators" with y'all. 

jess's birthday: jess kinda got screwed over on her b-day because it was in the middle of so much fucking other shit, but we still managed to get our asses out and get drunk, so don't worry. we started off at a tex mex place here and had like 4 pitchers of margaritas, with mostly me, jess, and nick drinking them. we then headed out to this place called bar bar where the gangsters hang out. i actually got less drunk though, as trey (the main gangster they hang out with) decided to treat me to his favorite mix of vodka and water instead of beer. while the thought was nice, i fucking hate vodka and the drink was like 98% water anyways. probably best i saved my liver anyways, as the next day was new year's eve. 

new year's: so we went to hong kong for new year's and it was super fun. i liked hong kong a lot, but at the same time i missed a lot of the chaos of the mainland. i also felt like i was being judged by hk-ers for being from the mainland, even though they clearly had no way of knowing that. i had gotten a dress made and wore heels and hose with it, trying to delude myself into thinking they'd make it to the end of the night. i also didn't realize how short it was til i pranced around in it a bit. thank god for the hose. we went to get indian for dinner and it was fucking delicious. then evan decided to pay for it, which was completely unnecessary and unexpected but really, really nice of him. after that we head to lkf which is like 6th street, if it were a block instead of just a street, and also it was on way to much fucking crack. i have never, NEVER been anywhere more crowded. it was absurd. also, they had this stupid "pedestrian traffic flow" in effect which meant you could only walk in one direction, even if you were like 2 feet in front of where you wanted to go. it was absurd. evan and i got separated from everyone at one point and had to journey for like 30 minutes to get back to where we were. it was like seriously a one minute walk if we could have turned and gone the other direction. at one point we were trying to cut through a bar, and spent 15 minute just completely smushed between people unable to move. once we finally were reunited with everyone and got into a bar and started drinking, it was awesome. seriously, so fun. oh, and there this australian guy who i would say was, oh, 5'4? and probably like, oh, 30? 35? who kept trying to talk to me. he also kept asking to take my picture. i'm pretty used to having people ask to take my picture these days, but the people asking aren't typically white or western. he then went to buy me a beer, and while he was gone i was talking to someone and said 'some weird guy is buying me a beer' and turned around and he was like 5 feet behind me. he then walked and stood against the wall holding the two beers awkwardly and i could see him debating in his mind what to do before finally coming up and handing it to me. i felt so bad at that point, i had to stay and talk with him (even if he didn't particularly want to talk to the bitch who was making fun of him, he was there alone so someone's better than no one, i guess). then kate came up and mentioned she's going to australia for break so i left him with her... oops? also, at some point in the night i took off my hose in an alley way. and the shoes had been traded out for jellies long before. so yeah, i was looking pretttttty classy by the end of things. amazingly, the glittery hat i had that matched my dress made it not only through the entire night, but also back to shenzhen the next day. oh, also we had kebabs for lunch and they were so goddamned good i just can't WAIT to be back in america and eating delicious shit. so far i have the following on my list. let me know if i'm missing anything:

CHUY'S

chipotle

jimmy john's

chili's (it's amazing how much i crave something as mediocre as chili's here)

monument (do you think i can request mac and cheese in advance??)

pizza on 6th

kerbey lane

mcalister's bread bowl

brooklyn pie co

mimi's cafe (but the barton creek one, fuck round rock)

WHATABURGER

CHICK FIL A

taco c

taco bueno (is that possible??)

wing stop or hooters or something

ok, i haven't eaten all day and it's 4:45 and now i'm waiting on evan to get out here to meet for dinner so i can't go eat and this post got out of control. i'm sorry. i'm going to go eat a snickers and calm down. oh, and i leave for SAIGON tomorrow!!! wish me luck on my first solo travel adventure! i'll try to post a blog there if possible (as i'll probably have a lot of free time...)