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