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.