I saw my life on the big screen

This morning I woke up late, and headed to the best massage I have ever had with 2 friends, just down the road. 60 minutes of incredibly skilled Tuina changed my whole physical and mental structure. We then went to a delicious hot pot restaurant, just down the road from our hotel and the Tuina place. Yum! We had fresh lotus root, fresh bamboo shoot, lamb, thinly sliced beef, wood ear mushrooms, noodels, wintermelon, cilantro--probably more things than I can remember. In case you're not familiar with hotpot, it works like this. You and some friends get one giant pot of soup broth on a burner in the middle of your table. You order a bunch of fresh ingredients and add slowly by slowly the things you want in your soup. Wait till it cooks, and eat! It was some of the best food I've had here in China, and hope to go back soon. It's really great wintertime rainy food, and I bet it'd be easy enough to build a hotpot burner into a kitchen countertop. Hmmmmmm...

Then I went and did a little shopping for a special teacup, and headed home to plan for the rest of the day. I was going to go to the Confucius temple, but was feeling whiny and grumpy, and not so much like being in the rain that visited Nanjing today. So, I did some research and found a dance troup in Nanjing that I would love to see. Apparently they perform every night at the "Apollo Theater" (wow, really?). But, try as I might, I couldn't find an address or even a street name for the theater. I did find some vague directions to the ticketmaster office, and decided to give that a try. I figured, if I couldn't find tickets to the show, I'd go to the movie theater in the giant mall nearby, and if I couldn't go to the movie's I knew where there was a Starbucks, so if all else failed I brought my book so I could sit and vortex to America.

I got on the bus to XinJieKou station, where the mall and the ticketmaster place was supposed to be. I wasn't sure how I'd find the office, but I gave it a shot.
This is the address I had: Room e3, L7, #90, Huatai Securities Building, Zhongshan East road.

Ok. Now, which is the street address? #90? and what were the chances that there would be a big sign that said in English "Huatai Securities Building".
If there was one, I missed it. I ended up in the Nanjing International building, on various floors filled with medical offices, rooms under construction and english language schools. No ticketmaster.
Considering that "Zhongshan East rd" actually heads south, I don't think I'm too down on myself for giving up for the day.

After I wandered around looking for about an hour, I decided to give up the dance performance for the evening and give the movies a shot.
I made it to the 7th floor of the mall, and came to find that none of the movie titles at the "International Theater" were listen in pinyin, nevermind English. sigh. I wandered around for a while looking at movie posters and playing with various interactive machines, hoping for a sign that looked moderately recognizable to guide me to the right movie selection. I was just about to give up and go to starbucks, when I decided I might as well give buying a ticket to a random movie a shot. As it turned out, the ticket lady spoke a little English--yay!---and was able to help me get to a movie.
sidenote: It really stinks not being able to speak the language, really really really.

I ended up seeing a movie that started in 20 minutes, with subtitles in english! It was the perfect end to the day. I saw "Painted Skin" or "Wa Pei". It was a really random movie, based on a Chinese classic story. A little kung-fu, a little mystery, a little romance, a little horror, a little comedy, a little buffy the vampire slayer, a little fantasy, and a little weird, and I don't think it was just the poor translation of the subtitles. Apparently it's one of the author's series of stories that are about fox spirits. Ok.
I was just happy to be in a theater being entertained and out of the rain for a few hours. I might go back and pick another movie just based on start time, it's not something I'd do in the states and is kind of fun.

Ironically on the way home, I saw a bus-stop sign for Huatai Securities---I might go back tomorrow and wander around some more if it's not raining. There's some good silly clothes shops in the area, and at least I'd be by the starbucks once the throngs of people bumping into me got tiresome.

I'm doing my best to watch the debates over the internet and they keep skipping, so I might study some Korean instead. I'm determined to learn a bit more Korean before I move there than I knew Chinese before coming here.