Hoop factory running again

I had my first birthday in China the other day. For the rest of the world I turned 26.. but in China I turned 27... hehe you are born at 1 here... so its always something to keep in mind when people tell you their ages. Also when I asked a student her birthday the other day (on of the usual warm up questions we ask) she gave me two dates.... one for the western calendar and one for the lunar calendar........ so ya.. birthdays are pretty damn confusing here :)

Since we had my very merry unbirthday a few weeks ago... I didn't really bother telling anyone it was my birthday. But I made sure to still go out and have a good time. We went to the BBQ restaurant that we go to a lot and had dinner (and of course its the only place in the city that has beer on tap year round, that we know of). And we got to sing Happy Birthday anyway. A couple of the waitresses brought out this big cake at one point and put it infront of one of the other waitresses... and as soon as they started lighting the candles... all the foreigners started to sing :) She didn't seem to happy about it being her birthday, but she blew out the candles and had some cake anyways... I was pretty amused and we left shortly after.. had we stuck around they might have given us some cake....which would have been really ironic.

We headed from dinner to CoCo's (the only good club in town) I had plenty of hoops with me and was ready to dance. As soon as the performers got of the stage.. I was up there with the hoop.... probably so quickly that I might have seemed like the next act to some people. There was a big name comedian doing a show earlier in the night (which isn't common) so there was a completely different crowd then normal. While I was on the box above the dance floor hooping.. one of the security guards walked up and handed me a 100 yuan bill ($15)... and pointed at some people on the side of the dance floor.... yay I got a tip :) It was really odd and I was a little reluctant to accept it... but that would have been very rude. So after I had hooped for a song or two I hoped down and went and thanked the people that sent me the tip and headed back to where my friends were. I spent a lot of time on the back stage (giving people dancing a chance to get on the box by the dance floor) and hooping.. sometimes with two hoops.... and basically hooped the night away!!! It was amazing. So a good birthday.

Also on Monday I did some wandering around the city with the new teacher.... and since its warmer now.. its a little easier to see in the shops as they don't have all the shit covering the doorways. I managed to find some electrical tape ($0.30 / roll) and some friction tape ($0.40 /roll) so I now have piping and tape..... HOOP FACTORY IS OPEN!!!! I have made 3 hoops so far and will be making more as I get time and the need.... the days are getting to where its pretty much warm enough I can go hoop in the park with a hoody on...... I tried a bit Monday but only stayed out for about 20 minutes.

Now I just need to figure out where to put the "Made in China" stamp on my hoops :)