National Week Cometh

It is upon us. That time of the year when EVERYONE in China has the week off. They mostly travel places. I have decided to neglect the traveling in favor of staying behind in Shenzhen. In retrospect I think maybe it's better that I stayed in Shenzhen. I'm busy every day until next weekend. I like it that way. Even one of my Chinese teacher friends Sophie said that maybe it's a good idea that I get to know Shenzhen before I get to know the rest of China. I like her take on this.

This is my schedule as it looks so far for next week:

• Monday - easiest day just clean and lay around or explore until six which is when I tutor Alice (that is if she got my text that I had to switch the days on her)
• Tuesday morning leave for Hong Kong with Cara, Kim and BA (our bodyguard - which gotta love him but the kid lacks all muscle mass lol) tramp around Hong Kong and then stay at a hostel for the night
  
• Wednesday night come home late and crash, if early then go out with Sophie
• Thursday night, if we didn't go out with Sophie to the bars in the city then we will today. Also there are plans to hit up the Chinese movie theater after...oh my
• Friday - plans are fluctuating on this end because it is far away. Friday Benny comes back from Anhui and also Jenny Huang asked me to accompany her to two of the biggest attractions in Shenzhen (Wonders of the World and Traditional Folk Town) So I may have to split the weekend between the two of them....and that should wrap up my break

So see, I won't be moping alone at home, actually far from it now that I think about it.

I wish that I were more in a writing mood. I would tell you guys about how I woke up to a flooded apartment the other morning. Well to be truthful it had flooded and was dry at the time, except the rugs were all totally soaked.

I would tell you how I was taken to the most adorable park on Wednesday afternoon - mid Typhoon - and that's where I saw the giant horse statue. (Pictures on Myspace)

I would tell you about my new little stalker/friend who is absolutely adorable Chinese student who sits with me at lunch everyday so that she can talk to me. She also draws and I am cursing the fact that there are no scanners here so that I cannot scan her drawings. What's eerie is the more she talks the more she reminds me of myself.

I would tell you about how Brendon and I are currently learning how to play "Chinese Ping Pong" because apparently it is very different from American Ping pong (and also better) and I'm sure that my teacher hates me because we all know I take direction SO well. But I'm progressing.

I would tell you about my new pet snail that sits in a water bottle on my desk. It was a present from one of my shyer students and I don't have the heart to get rid of it. I don't think it's eating and I fear it may die. But for now it remains. We don't speak, just acknowledge each other with a series of head-nods and antennae twitches.

However I will tell you about is this morning. Briefly. I needed a filler lesson for today because I'm going to have to teach the same kids in two weeks and if I give them next week's lesson they'll be really ahead. SO I decided that today would be sort of a fun game type day. I decided I would show them a bit of a tv show. One of my favorites.....SYTYCD. I don't know where I got the idea for dancing into my head but I figured that it would be something that they could enjoy visually. The movie worked okay and most of them paid attention, but the fun came when I turned off the DVD. I asked them if they could dance (in Chinese of course) and two little boys responded. They actually got up and started half waltzing. I swear I almost cried. It was awesome. I need to remember candy for those two kids at another date. Made my week.

I need to start video taping these kids. Some of them are ridiculous.

Mumblings and grumblings

I need to get out of my own head. So I'm going to try to do that by writing in here. I don't know I'm just a little panicky and depressed as of late. My school is ridiculously frustrating. Not the kids, they are great, they do what I want them to do, I can make them understand me, if not I move on. It's the friggen teachers sometimes. My contact teacher's English as well as the English of several of the other teachers is rather poor. So when I'm trying to get them to explain something to me I get all frazzled and normally just smile and walk back to my desk. I just want to know what these kids know as far as English is concerned. I have a sort of guideline for the younger ones but the older ones - nothing. If we were starting at the beginning with these kids it would be easy (or it wouldn't be) but at least I'd know that everyone was at the same level. Maybe those guys who took primary had their head in the right place. They just tell me to get them talking. Talking about what!? There are other teachers who are feeling this confusion like I am. We're not teachers but they don't seem to understand that. We also sort of go the raw end of the deal because we didn't get the "full training" due to extenuating circumstances. So we're sort of up the creek with only a quarter of a paddle and a bag of feed for the sharks.

I also want to know when I get paid. Something that I have already asked them and they said "sometime this week" which could mean whenever. Remember we're dealing with the Sears' repairmen here. I just don't know what borders on annoying if I ask too much.

Holiday is coming up, that's what I need to tell you guys that I keep forgetting. That's also why I'm here now on Saturday (and then tomorrow which is Sunday.) It's a seven day work week so that we can have seven days off next week. I am not going anywhere...well that's a lie, I'll go places just not heavy traveling. The Bao'an group wants to travel to Shanghai. 400 yuan to sit on a train for 16 hours to go to Shanghai and drink and spend the whole time with foreigners doesn't really sound like my idea of a good time. So me and Brendon decided to stay behind here in Bao'an. I've already been invited to come visit Cara and Kim in Luohu and also to go Mountain hiking with one of the teachers so I have some plans. We'll see what the rest of the week brings. Maybe a trip to the ocean, maybe to Hong Kong. Everyone is just itching to travel. I don't see why, we just had a ridiculous experience coming to China itself, I think maybe I'll save the heavy travel for the next big vacation.

Of course for that week I probably won't be online (due to no internet.) If Cara or Kim have internet I may ask to use it for a short while but not long. So if I go without answering emails or writing blogs or all that please understand. The break is from Monday to next Sunday. It's National Week and it happens all throughout China (which is cool.) All the Chinese at once go on vacation. It's a little intimidating.

Also there are pictures....somewhere on the internet. No I joke, they're on myspace. I generally have a venerable hatred for Myspace that can only be cured by going on websites such as facebook. However magically when it comes to uploading photos from China, myspace has been the only website that has cooperated. SO. If you have a myspace account awesome. If you don't you can either look through someone else's or I can upload the link here to view the photos. If it doesn't work I'm SURE that you know someone who has an account so that you can see them. http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=51271440&albumId=2625484
Is the link. Enjoy please! There are pictures there from Chicago, Zhuhai, and Shenzhen.

I'm currently reading "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemmingway at Gavin's recommendation. The next book is "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" I know heavy reading but Terry Prachett was too light for my mood as of late.

I think I need to go back to sleep, if I can't get out of this funk.

Hen Duo Le

Uhhhh guuuyyyss why didn't anyone tell me that I write wayyyy too much. I've been skimming the journals of a few other foreign kids here in the program and mine are just SO god damn long compared to their blogs. I hope they're interesting at least for the most part. Sometimes I just start rambling and don't know when to stop like a broken record player. I need some sleep. Last night went out for coffee a wee bit too late and then had a lesson plan to finish afterwards keeping me up til.....dun dun dun nearly 3:00am. When you can't sleep past 6:30am because the sun shines in your room and the school music starts playing, 3:00 is not a wise decision at all.

Not much to report. Today is an easy day as far as I'm concerned. Only three classes. Right now the kids are learning to make questions like "how many people are in your family?" or "where do you come from?" Really simple and basic, I know, but that's what they're learning. They're just Junior one after all. It's my threes that I'm worried about. I'm not sure which level they're at so it's sort of like guessing and checking to see where they're English level is. In every class there will always be the kids who are really good and there will always be the kids who are really poor. You just have to learn to teach them all as a whole and not give up when they just don't get it.

Still haven't gotten sick here (I type as I look for some wood to knock on) which I think is pretty lucky. Other people have had the worse end. Of course time will tell with these new iron pills that my friend bought for me when I told him about the low iron in my blood. A really kind gesture, I just hope my body adjusts to Chinese medicine. Who knows, maybe I'll take on super powers of some kind.

There is an old man who lives down the hall who I swear is a Kong Fu master. I'm waiting for the day that he just up and attacks someone who is doing some kind of harm. He's totally Bruce Lee. Lee didn't die, just got old, took off his shirt and moved to Hai Bin Middle School.

Even though it kept me up so late, the UBC Coffee House that I was taken to was randomly adorable. You sit on these little swings that have fake vines running down them and sip coffee (or tea if you're me) The swings reminded me of laying in the hammock at mom's house and falling asleep in the afternoon sun. Haha I'm such a baby, any sense of rocking motion (water, swing, hammock) and I'm out.

Still not sure if we're going to be in Shanghai or not, will let you know.

Departure of Zhuhai Song

This song was written by Fred Brewer (who we've lovingly dubbed French Fred, or French "Bread" to me and Randy) and sung on the last day that we were in Zhuhai. He plays guitar and sung it for us. It's sort of like a commemorative/drinking song. A "bumper" is a drink. Very clever, so I had to post it.


good evening to you our english-speaking friends
we've gathered you tonight to celebrate the end
we've made it through our training in beautiful zhuhai
so let's throw back a bumper before we say goodbye

now to all you brave explorers we sincerely tip our hat
we'll save you all a bumper for when you make it back
and when you pack your bags take a bumper with your needs
may a countless good times line the road that you lead

if your mondays are a bitch and your weeks a bummer
then hit the local pub, throw back another bumper!
yeah those little devils might make you lose your mind
but with a bumper and a friend everything's alright

a special thanks to trevor, the karaoke superstar
a bumper and a thanks for getting us this far
james, rachel, lauren, shay, the best of the pack
and william o'donnell konws what it's like to be black!

CTLC the place i want to be! CTLC the place for you and me!

Huasheng means Peanuts

Ok. I'm going to take a breath here and calmly say that I do not have internet in my apartment. Also I leave every Friday at 1:00pm to go to Chinese class and do not return until late and offices are closed. So I do not have internet from Friday evening until Monday morning. I actually don't mind it because I am not sitting around bored and online in my apartment, I am outside exploring or spending time with friends or trying new tentacle-ed food or any number of things. So according to your time - I am not available from Friday morning 1:00am until Sunday night 8:00pm (that is America time I'm stressing.) I mostly say this because I came upon a mess of emails today asking where I had gone and to please respond. I understand some of you are worried and that's fine, but there may be times that I don't respond for a while, maybe because it's the weekend, maybe because I'm traveling, maybe because I just have other things to do. Please don't worry. I'm half a world away and I'm a teacher so that's means I'm pretty busy. Trust me if anything seriously wrong happened my friends or James Jones or any number of people would be able to contact my family and let them know what is wrong. We are not alone over here (I find myself feeling very Spielburgian saying that) please keep this in mind.

Of course, this being China, everything I've just told you has the ability to change at any time. For instance I may not have class on a certain day for some random holiday that they just created such as "we don't feel like teaching day" or sommat. In such case I will be gone. For example next week my group of foreign teachers are planning on taking a trip to Shanghai because we have the week off because it is National Week. If we go it should be an interesting time because Shanghai is supposed to be an international city.

I smile as I look around my little cubicle. It's only been two weeks since I started and already it is littered with papers, books, and drawings from myself. Not to mention photos of people and places from home as well as letters and cards from my eager little students. I keep giving them my email but today one little boy said he didn't have email at home so he wrote me a letter instead. It's hanging in my cube, this is what it says:

My name is Andy, my Chinese name is Xi Yang Yang. I'm 12 years old. I live in Shenzhen. I would like to be your friend. My favourite hobby is playing piano! I like to eat very much. I'm fat, yes? I like swimming but I usually drink water. (So clever they are, and no he's not fat)

I asked him if I could keep it because it was so adorable.

This weekend was actually not as exciting as the last weekend but it was still enjoyable (God that sentence is so bland it sounds like it came from one of their texts.) Friday I didn't teach because I had to nip off to the police station with the rest of the group from Nanshan, Luohu, and Bao'an to apply for our visas. Yes, it's still in application mode and no I still don't have my passport (which means travelling to Shanghai may not even happen.) We basically stood around for two hours until they called our number and then we handed them a load of papers and walked out. We all felt as if we got shafted in some way but weren't sure in which way. Again...China....the hurry up and wait policy. Afterwards, those of us who remained from Bao'an (like patient little puppies) took a trip on the Metro with J.J. (code name James Jones) and then went to eat at a Sichuanese restaurant. Anyone who's up for spicy food would appreciate Sichuanese food. Sichuan food comes from Sichuan of course, but this is the area that had the big Earthquake back in May. After lunch (where we learned that J.J. was only 26 and looks like he's nearly mid thirties) we tramped around the city until it was time for Chinese class, which was in the same area. (This included a small shopping exceursion to WALMAR {the chinese pronunciation of Wal-Mart} to attack the DVD's for 1.90kuai bin. This is ridiculously cheap people, $1.00 = sometimes like 6.5 kuai. So 1.9 is a helluva deal. I stocked up on movies like Shopgirl, Marie Antoinette, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind {which I've heard is really good} and we also meandered over to Book City and I finally found my first English novels in China. Oh happy day! It's so comforting to see English words jump out at you in a sea of Chinese.

Ok, writing about my daily to me is kinda boring yeah yeah I know some of you want to read the fine details of my life but to write them up all the time makes me fall asleep so I can't imagine that I'm keeping you guys awake as well. So I think for the rest of this post I'm going to switch to bullets and get the finer points.

• Bought a book of a 100 Chinese folk tales with Chinese/English so I can better my Chinese pronunciation a bit.
  
• My friend Benny (who's name in Chinese is Jin Chuan, I found out this past weekend) took me to the "Ecological reserve Park" in Nanshan which is a seaside park with lots of trees and a boardwalk. All very gorgeous and smelling of the ocean. It's nicer in the evening time.
  
• Still can't eat fish heads...no matter how they persuade me
• Oh! I played ping pong with my three Chinese male teacher buddies, Mr. Huang, Benny and Chen Da. They said I was better than many of the female teachers (which is saying alot because Chinese people are born with the ability to play table tennis.)
  
• After ping pong two of them took me dancing, which I wasn't aware was where we were going and as such did not dress appropriately in retrospect. This place was right out of SYTYCD (or Dancing with the Stars if you like) with people dancing the Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Samba, and any number of dances -ALL of which they wanted me to try. Apparently I'm making progress.....ohhh my. When we left I started chiding them in English saying that "Dancing is the thing that I'm most afraid of and that I want to learn the most, and I am at the beginning level and you threw me into the advanced class!" It was funny listening to Benny translate my frantic English into Chinese as I walked in front of them. Albeit, it was fun. I'm going again but next time I think I'll drag Brendon along with me.
• Thinking about it, sometimes I have more fun with my Chinese friends than with my English friends. The foreign teachers always want to hang out and watch movies, or have days where it's just us like every day! That's cool and all but honestly I came to China to learn Chinese customs and ways of life, not to spend time only in groups of foreign kids. It's not my fault that they don't want to make friends with their Chinese teachers.
• Saturday I had tutoring to which I was LATE. Of all the people in China, I get the one kid who shows up on time....ugh. As far as I was concerned it was a good tutoring session. I had really nothing planned so I just chit chatted with her while we ate the food her mother cooked for us in little tupperware containers. Her English was much better than many of the students in my other classes and it was refreshing to know that there are some kids who have the ability to learn the language. I was impressed. Even if she was a little stuck up about it. I found out that she liked Harry Potter and it was all over though, that was what we talked about for nearly an hour. 200kuai a session aint bad I suppose.
• What else...what else....Oh! I got my shoes mended and they did a helluva job! The guy stitched the lining all around my sandals and glued the parts that were falling apart. All for only 10kuai. It's like they're brand new, which is impressive because at the rate they were going I was going to kill them in about a month. China destroys your shoes, from all the walking you do to the horrible way that the streets are put together, your shoes will die. I am always falling. But I am beyond happy about the shoes. Yay. Squee.
• On a final note, I skipped out on going out with the guys to nanshan on Saturday because I had tutoring 'til late and I really didn't feel like traveling all that way for the second time that day. I'm glad I didn't go because everyone that went either drank too much, got sick, blacked out or passed out. And one guy even got into a fight with some Chinese punks - although if it's the person I think it was he was probably hitting on some Mafia chicky - which is a big no no in China.
  

Right, I'm off to hand out English names. Although, letting them make them up themselves has proved to be the funnies thing this side of the ocean. Some of the weirdest are splendid, gold, lazy sheep, consumer, box, Madonna, Finger, Letcher and Zero.) I'm lovin' it.

"Can I do your friends?"

This is the question that was emailed to me by one of my more ambitious students. I know she meant "can I be your friend?" but I couldn't resist posting her innocent mistranslation. Right now in classes we are making English names, which in itself is proving to be a bit chaotic. There are so many Tims and Toms and Kens that I'm tripping over them. I also have a Superman, Sugars, and a Mat (one T, she's also a girl and one of my favs cuz she's a little awkward).

I expected my websites to be attacked when I got back from the holiday because I wasn't online all weekend. I was correct! I do not have internet in my apartment, which I am dealing with - it's one of those things that they say they will fix sometime this week, but I'm sure when they show up I'm not there, and they don't call me. Chinese people taught the Sears repair guys how to do this I know it.

Friday night I went over to my contact teacher (Helen)'s house to have dinner with her family. This little event proved to be.......awwwwkwwward to say the least. Not only did none of them speak English (well her daughter did I found out later but she chose not to for the first half hour) but there was a disturbance when Helen's sister's daughter (her niece) hadn't come home. So mom and aunty went out to look for the girl while I stayed behind with the "not-talking-to-me-daughter" and the "stare-at-you-blankly-grandparents" and of course eat the soup in front of me (which must have been some sort of brain material albeit it was pretty good with tomatoes). The niece returned first, saying that she was at school. I tried to talk to her but she refused (EVEN though she was in one of my classes) she was just that shy. Then the aunt returned and Helen called to say that she was bringing over the girl's head teacher.
Now, each class has a head teacher of that specific grade. Sort of like their homeroom teacher only worse. The niece almost broke down into tears. The poor thing was so scared. Helen returned with not only the head teacher but also three of her former students (who now go to Bao'an middle school where Katie and Amy teach). We all spoke a little English and after dinner Helen showed us her very lovely apartment. It was 2-3 stories with a garden on the roof - so lovely. After that we watched Chinese soap operas for a while and ate Dragon fruit - which was mostly just a less sweet kind of melon with a ton of little seeds. Comes from Tailand. Then she drove myself and the head teacher home. It all felt like there was some big joke that I wasn't let in on. Not a lonely feeling, just that I missed something. Of course this is generally how a foreign person feels in China all the time.

Saturday I was told that Mr. Huang (the vice principal) and his daughter would pick me up around 3. In China (as with Sears' repairmen) 3:00pm means anywhere from 2-6. So around 5:15pm I got a very frantic call, first in Chinese, then in English from his daughter saying that they were at the gate to meet me. As much as I was annoyed with waiting around so long, I enjoyed this visit much more. Apparently I was the first foreign person that the Huang family had had in their home and they were all very excited even though Mr. and Mrs. Huang spoke no English. Jenny (their daughter) had come home on holiday from Shenzhen University and her English was very welcome especially after Friday night. Many of you (especially mom) will be excited to hear that she picked up much of her English colloquialisms from watching none other than "Friends". Apparently they are obsessed with the show here, although I don't think they understand the finer jokes such as ("The humas, I got the humas." and "Got keys?" which even the Americans fail to catch when I say it). Jenny spent much of the time talking to me about movies, and showing me pictures of her many travels around China. Her father also brought out his photos and showed me his travels around Europe. He is a very cute man and is always making funny poses in the photos. Cute sense of humor. I also couldn't help giggling at the mother's expression, because it never changed from photo to photo. She had this look of uncomfortableness mixed with wonder and also looked like she might be sick in a moment. I loved how she had this same face in every photo. Cracked me up.
The food - I was told - was traditional Guangdong food (this is the larger province in which the city of Shenzhen is in) It consisted of Tofu (both fried and boiled) soup, shrimp (heads and legs attached), greens, and chicken. Afterwards we had the most bitter tea I've ever had and some grapes and bitty apples. Like literally apples the size of grapes. They had me try my hand at calligraphy, which I am horrible at, but I got a small applause for my attempt. Mr Huang is a fan of calligraphy and is wonderful at it. It's probably why there are so many characters in Jenny (Huang Jia Yu)'s name, because he wanted to write them all. I listened to Jenny play the Guzhen which is basically a Chinese harp that lays down. It sounded like the backdrop from every classical Chinese movie I've ever watched, so pretty.
To add to everything that they had shared with me that evening these sweet people also gave me gifts (which was sweet and completely unnecessary and made me glad I brought them some extra moon cake that I had extra of from teacher's day). They gave me a box of Belgium chocolate which I have yet to open, and a pashmena (which of course no one got the Friends reference but me again) and a little red Chinese good luck charm. I hope it works, I'm going to need luck this year I'm sure.

Sunday. Sunday I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I had been invited by so many teachers to watch the Moon Viewing. But then I learned that the Moon Viewing party was mostly for single teachers. Yes I am friends with many of these teachers, but I realized that would mean single men drunk and falling out of their chairs trying to put together simple English sentences to talk to me....while drunk. I had originally invited my group of friends to come with me but they all backed out when they told me that Rachel (the coordinator who lives in our area) was having a get together in Nanshan. So I had a decision to make(go alone but celebrate the moon viewing festival with drunken Chinese teachers or go to Nanshan with a bunch of Americans and not celebrate the holiday but mostly drink). I chose the latter and while I'm sure it was the better idea in retrospect I wasn't happy about it while I was there. (The only time I was happy was when I was dancing because people were quiet) While some of these people I tend to get along with very well, others and I clash at the strangest times. Granted I understand where they are coming from, and they are quite due their opinion, I am also due to mine. However mine is frequently ignored. When we met some returning teachers I blatantly stated that I was the nicest of the three girls. It was a joke of course but they immediately jumped all over it. Of the four girls this is not true, but of the three girls this is very true, I think. I can't explain it without going into specific details and possibly hurting the feelings of those who may read this but in certain aspects it rings true. I do not make people feel bad about themselves because it makes me feel better. I do not put down customs that I am unfamiliar with because they are different from my own.
I don't know, it's been getting me down a little lately - the ignorance of people. When it does I think about all of the good things that I have here. I have the friends who I can talk to, I have the new Chinese friends that I am making, and I have friends and family at home who care about me very much. So when these people say their rude and uncaring remarks or act like they're better than everyone else, I just put the cotton in my ears. Or I pull the Chinese card and smile and nod - always works.

But I will stray away from things that make me blue and focus on the things that make me smile.
Monday, yesterday, was one of my favorite days so far. My friend, Benny, one of the first teachers in the school to make friends with me, offered to take me out and show me around the city. Let me explain Benny. He is short (duh, Chinese) and sweet, with a really good sense of humor as far as Chinese humor goes. He is the teacher for classes 7 and 4 and they all really adore him. I remember my male teachers were my favorites in school and because it was so rare to have one for a language class, they always brought a new sense of humor and fun to the classes. Perfect examples are Cooper sensei, Langlois sensei, and Nakao sensei. So I'm sure that's why they adore him. In a small and horribly stereotypical way he reminds me of Jackie Chan. I think it is the fact that he is always smiling, always laughing. I like it.
He took me to his favorite Chinese restaurant and ordered way too much food (which is just what they do here, I've decided.) Seriously the phrase "there are starving kids in China" is totally false. They waste more food than we do! But honestly the food was great - dumplings and porridge and cucumber salad and tea. So good, in fact, we went to the same restaurant for both lunch and dinner! The best part was when the power went out "candle light dinner" so cute, except when the girl at first basically put the tiny church candle on the table, not supported by anything, and then proceeded to stick it the top of a bottle of liquor. Have these people never heard of the maltov cocktail? Seriously. In between giant meals we went walking around the streets, attempting to find stores that sold English books, with the result of a teeny corner in the largest bookstore in the area (4 stories!) mostly classic fiction and Shakespeare. He also showed me a little gorgeous park right in the middle of the city of Bao'an. Now Bao'an reminds me of a blend of Chicago and Detroit - more Chicago, so a quiet little park is a welcoming find. There were areas to sit and watch the water, or run and play, and there was even an area to roller skate. That's right a roller rink in the middle of China. It's so junior high school. In fact, the whole day was very Junior High school. Walking and talking and eating and making conversation. His English is one of the best here in my opinion so it wasn't just simple sentences (we were talking about American politics and economy at one point) and it was nice to talk to someone with a positive perspective on things rather than the mumblings and grumblings of foreigners. Late into the evening we went to karaoke which was...an...interesting experience to say the least. What I will say about it that it was the first time I've ever all out sang in front of someone and I got a pretty decent response (gahhhhh still embarrassed thinking about it!) Definitely brightened me up after the "gwoomy" feelings of Sunday. Sorry Joel I had to steal Eddison's word cuz it's perfect. The events of yesterday have put me in a smiling mood all day.

To add another piece of news that happened today. Brendon Albertson has been found. The prodigal son of the "group of 7" has finally responded to me and I know where he is. I'm glad because with Randy gone I kind of lost my person in a way. Anyone who's watched Grey's Anatomy can explain that one to you. You have your group of friends, but then you have that one person that you can talk to about everything else. I usually have a guy for that because I think they are more down to earth than girls. So all in all I am excited. This week has started out rather lucky. Maybe it's because of Mr. Huang's red luck charm. Maybe it's the spirit of Mao Zedong that haunts China. Maybe it's just me.

'Til then

Don't use the red chalk...

I keep telling myself this and yet here I am sitting in my cube with bright pink hands and pink stains on my pants again. I feel bad for my teachers who had to use chalkboards, you really do get it everywhere and some colors stain - like red for instance.

Wednesday was Teacher's Day in China which I believe is celebrated throughout the country. Even though I was frustrated that I had to start teaching on Monday and most other people could wait, I made up for it on Wednesday because SO many kids brought me flowers and little adorable presents. The people who started later in the week didn't get many flowers because the kids don't know them as well. It's a sweet reminder of how excited they are.

At night we went to a banquet with all the teachers in the school. The male teachers decided that they wanted to see how much I could drink so they kept feeding me wine and also bai jiu.
Let me explain Bai Jiu for a minute. It is a type of liquor that tastes like the mixture of vodka and turpentine and they down it for a good kick. But don't take it lightly because it will mess you up! I'm just grateful I don't get hangovers. The wine was very good, I should have just stuck with that but they were persistant. After what was probably my 10th toast with the wine and my third shot of bai jiu I found myself being rushed to the restroom. Very emberassing on my end but they took it in stride. Miss Sophie and another English teacher who's name I am forgetting helped me to get home. At some point on the short walk home Sophie stopped into a shop and bought bandaids and when I asked her what for she pointed to my nose. Apparently I had bumped it rather hard on something and now there is a lovely purplish red mark on my nose - exactly where my old scar is from jumping off the bed so long ago! I wear a bandaid that I cut so it will fit the bridge of my nose. Now not only do I get stared at for being a foreigner but also for the awesome bandage on my nose. Very stylish.

My drunken exploits have made their way through much of the faculty by now and their consensus is that is was the men's fault for letting me drink so much. Or for pushing me to drink I should say. I need to watch out, though, because sometimes I forget that to them I am not one of the guys like I am back home, I am a vulnerable tipsy female with a chest larger than most of them are used to. So I need to be very careful not to forget this. Next time I go out I think I will bring someone with me. My little family of friends have already given me enough lectures about it and I am quite aware. No drinking for me for awhile.

On another side note I have these little groups of "ducklings" I shall call them. Groups of girls who randomly attack my desk when I am not in their class. They have a 10 minute break in between classes and when they are not busy they will come to my desk and stand there giggling. Conversations generally go like this:
Me: "Hello!"
Them: "Hellohowareyou?"
Me: "I'm good, thank you. How are you?"
Them: Giggle. Giggle.

I'm trying to get them to talk so I ask really simple questions. When we break into the harder stuff I will see how much they know. They've already asked me to start maybe tutoring on weekends. I'm not sure, it depends if I want to give up my free time. Maybe I can do it some other day when I don't have as many classes.
They also love to stare at the photos that I have propped up on my little wall. It is the pictures of me and mom (the four photo snapshot) and the photo of me and Aunt Shelley. They always say that they are both very young and beautiful. So sweet!

This weekend is the Moon Viewing Festival. Everyone spends time with family and friends and looks at the moon (which will be full) and drinks and eats mooncake.
Tonight I have been invited to eat dinner with my contact teacher and her daughter and then to go to KTV (which is karaoke) afterwards. I keep trying to tell her than I cannot sing but I think she will find out when we go. Then Saturday I have been invited to Mr. Huang's house to visit him and his daughter who will be coming home from college for the festival. She is 20something so I am told, so she is around my age. I think I am going to have breakfast and tea with them and then possibly other things. Should be interesting. It's like they all want to share me lol. I will be sure to take pictures.

An apology on the lack of pictures: I have been taking them, although probably not as many as I should. Most of my friends have pictures on their cameras more than I do so I will try and steal them from their cameras and put them online. Also the loading speed is horribly slow on these computers so I don't have the patience so I have no pictures up yet. When I do I will be sure to let everyone know. For the time being there are photos on mom's facebook that she has stolen from Randy and Gavin. Hopefully there will be more soon. Hopefully it will not just show us drinking and acting like fools. I will not really be drinking this weekend. I think I'll just stick to the moon cakes.

Drive By Hello-ing

They don't make a "hello" proof vest so I guess I'll just have to get used to it. It is adorable though, and I'm glad because I want the students to feel that they can talk to me (especially in English). On the first day (Monday) they had their weekly morning ceremony and the Principal introduced me to the entire school which was, I have to say a little bit intimidating. But as I stared at all of the eager young faces and I thought about my own time in Junior High I realized to myself "I can do this, this won't be so hard." And it really hasn't. Every time I have a class the students are SUPER excited. They've been anticipation their new wai jiao for a whole week and I don't want to disappoint them. This week in every class we are doing "Introductions" a very short exercize involving me throwing my kooshball at them and then they throw it to each other and the pair introduce each other to the class including their English names. It gets a little rowdy some of the times, but they have fun doing it and that is important. In my "rough" class we had alot of jokers who would make up random names instead of their English names. My two favorites were "Mao Zedong" and "Hu Jintao" which was a mistake because I'm calling them that all year.

The boys are usually rambunctious and the girls are usually quiet or very complimentary. Last week after my third class I got attacked by a group of young girls who wanted my phone number and email address I told them that I could give it to them next week. O.o
Then today I had a little girl come up to me after class and ask to be my friend, they always want to be my friend which is adorable. Then she asked if she could shake my hand.
I also had a small boy give me some of the best chocolate I've had since I got here, I'll have to ask him where he got it. I haven't been able to find decent cheap chocolate yet.

My eyes are hurting. One of our friends had to leave us yesterday and go back to America because his brother has to have serious surgery. The problem is he probably cannot come back because of the strictness of the government and the fact that his visa will not be processed in time to return. It is one of the saddest things. We've all turned into a small sort of awkward family because of all we've been through, from the 23 hour Flight to the Chicago layover, to running around the airport and customs, to hotel stay after hotel stay, to hearing Willie D make outlandish comments about everything, to watching the wonder that is James Jones. He and I also shared the experience when we went with one of the coordinators to get cell phones before the rest of the group. He was also the person who was closest to me distance wise, my accountabilibuddy as we say because of South Park. He feels very lost, because now he has to go out into the real world and get a real job and a car and start life again. This is of course the same fear we all have but now he has to do it sooner. I still believe that something will bring him back. We did not all meet each other only to be ripped apart. There is always a reason and there is a reason for this as well. Maybe if he stayed he would get aids from a Chinese prostitute or get hit by one of the many buses that are always speeding by. I told him that at least he can get a head start on eating all the food that he missed while he was here - such as Cheeseburgers and Hot Dogs and Taco Bell and Italian food and.....I need to stop. Right now he is in Beijing and will have to spend a while there until his flight leaves for LAX and then to Chicago then to Dullas and then to Birmingham, Alabama. Not the longest flight ever(we had that getting here) but still a hassle. It makes me upset so I will stop talking about it now.

I'll end with a few side notes:
- I love my apartment, the guy who lived there last year left alot of useful things for me to use and it is very spacious, I think it is the biggest of the seven (lucky me!)
- I have no english channel in my apartment or internet(which hopefully they will fix soon) but I do have it in my office at school. And he left me a DVD player and many DVDs including series like 24, Lost, and CSI Miami.
- I had a club sandwich at this tiny RBT club with the guys yesterday that was really good! They also had fries and the most delicious drinks. The only problem was that I don't think our waitress actually worked there I think she was pretending because she knew a little English and she had the biggest crush on Randy X-D They even gave him their QQ's which is the Chinese equivelent for IM address. They basically sat at the table next to us the entire time we ate and STARED at him. It was a really memorable last night for him. It is too bad that he had to leave we could have had serious fun with that place
- I miss Autumn but I hear that there are two seasons here in Bao'an Summer and Autumn. So when that time comes I will be very excited and perfectly happy. This intense heat and humidity is killing me. And the classrooms have no a/c so yeah everyone is sitting in a bucket of sweat.

I think I need to get offline now because I've been sitting here for about 40 minutes. I will sleep and shower and then maybe go exploring. I will keep you informed! It is all very exciting!

HELLOGOODBYE