I did not cry over spilled milk...I growled

Today I slept in. It felt amazing.

Laundry and breakfast followed along with both my soy milk and cow milk boxes leaking in the fridge. Urg. No worries, I just downed most of them and put the rest in bottles. One thing I am getting used to here though is the different pasteurization methods of making milk. A lot of the milk sits out on the shelves in stores, telling you immediately that you are dealing with a different animal. This means the milk is pasteurized at extreme temperatures so that no preservatives are used but it lasts longer. The milk comes out tasting more like the milk you get after you eat all the cereal out of the bowl than what we're used to in America.

Athena and I set out on an exploring journey today, finally venturing to the farthest Macau island: Cotai. It is a completely different feel than Macau island because there is a lot more greenery and a lot less development. We ended up at Hac Sa Beach, though we did not go swimming. There was a nice little restaurant catering to Europeans who live here or tourists. There was Beatles paraphernalia everywhere in the restaurant. We had fish and chips, which for some reason I had been craving for a while. I also got to teach Athena about how an espresso shot dies and gets bitter. Poor thing thought she was getting something different. Thank you, Starbucks, for that part of my education.

The beach is not your typical beach setup, but similar. There are small bbqing shacks ran by locals that sell drinks and skewers of octopus or chicken for cheap. I find myself happiest when I find something other than concrete to breathe in. Macau is nice, but I've never lived without green for long. That's why Taipa and coloanne are my weekend getaways.

We walked past these waterfront historic looking Portuguese style houses that you could tell only the very rich would own or live in. One house even had one of those self set up swimming pools you buy at toy stores. Very few people have grass around here, especially not enough grass for a pool. Beyond the houses was a park with rock climbing. It seemed to be quite the hang out for local college students.

We are currently back in Taipa and at (you guessed it) Cuppacoffee. Since we don't really have internet at the apartment yet, we use what resources we can. On a hot hot hot humid day like today, an ice blended mocha is soooooo rewarding.

That's pretty much the story from here. I think I will go home to clean the bathroom---uhg. We have 3 rotating cleaning jobs: kitchen, living room/trash, and bathroom. I being the mini-Vickie that I am discussed with the girls and made a calendar rotation of jobs to keep everyone happy and no one whining 'I did kitchen lassssst week.' Not that I think my roomates would whine, they've been great to live with....it just keeps things easy and open communication. So anyway, moral of the story is I got bathroom duties first week, and it wasn't cleaned to par before we moved in. Score! So glove shopping, here I come!