Fall Flirtations

Some fantastic quotes of late (either heard or read):

"Feichang Good" and "Very Hao"

"What's wrong, what happened?"

"You see this knife? I'm going to teach you English with this fucking knife!"

"Art thou calling my mother a pox ridden wench?"

"Parallel World = Gingerbread House"

This weekend was a trip, definately a trip and a half. Friday, after class I headed off to the wonder that is Futian and spent the evening hanging around with that crowd, lovely people - much less drama, little bit of weirdness, all around good. We drank and danced and KTV'ed it up with some good lookin' Chinese boys (pictured above) (p.s. OMG a photo worked I'm having a little party in my head right now, must attempt more at later date). We botched some Chinese songs and made them attempt some English ones (Britney spears was the funniest by far). Around 2 we all decided to grab a bite to eat at the local "dog-serving facility". We didn't try the local fair but stuck to seafood and vegetables. I ended up getting driven home by two of them (the two wearing grey in the photo) after a long night, they took me all the way home to Bao'an. What sweethearts! My favorite part was the next day I had to wake up at 7 in the morning to teach at the training center and the younger one (named Veyans, great name) texted me at 7:30 in the morning to make sure that I was awake. Let me share this with you cuz it's cute:

Veyans: "Shauna, goodmorning, I'm veyans, are you ok? (What's wrong) (side note: he kept saying "what's wrong?" whenever we did anything all night, it was cute and we all kept laughing about it so he'd keep saying it. He put it in the text so I would know who he was)

Shauna : "Good morning! How are you, you must be very tired, why are you awake?"

Veyans: "I'm sleeping now, I worry about you can not wake up, so send message to you."

Shauna: "So kind, thank you so much, have a good sleep."

Veyans: "Thank you! Nice to meet u! I holp that I have a change to see you again."

(cute as a button)

Moving on.

Apart from spending an obscene amount of kuai at the new local H&M store with Caroline and fighting the mob scene at Shi Jie Ji Chuang attempting to get a bus home Saturday was pretty quiet.

Sunday we took the hilariously crowded 395 bus into town to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of the troop. I seriously don't know how we crammed on this bus. The bus probably fit 70 people safely and we were trying to cram 200 on it was beyond ridiculous. I was laughing for the better part of the ride while constantly being slammed between other riders. I have to say that my claustrophobia is definitely fading in this country. Have to love that. After about an hour of that we made it back to Futian. We walked for about a half a mile and found ourselves at Lauren's school to help celebrate. I was proud, people really came together especially when it came to bringing food. There were all sorts of goodies, not to mention five turkeys. Among them were cranberries, mashed potatoes, bread, cookies, stuffing, and salad among other treats of a different nature - peanut butter sandwiches, chips and salsa, oranges and sangria. It was great seeing people that I hadn't seen since Zhuhai because they had either stopped coming to Chinese class or disappeared into China altogether. We ate and drank and watched the boys get sweaty and play football.

Late in the evening I took the bus by myself to Shenzhen university, I figured I owed it to them considering I didn't go on Wednesday. Sure enough I got mobbed again, this time having the pleasure of meeting an Elvis and a Michael (named for Michael Jackson and proud to show off his dance work.) I saw the regulars too, Ian, Emma, Jimbo and David. We continued to pick on Jimbo because "she" couldn't get pronouns right all night. Elvis said that he was a freshman (he was only 18!) and was thinking about trying to get into Michigan university sometime next year. He was super quiet and his aunt who came with him seemed to take over most of the conversation. At some point someone brought up the topic of S&M and transsexuals and I felt like I should cover his ears because he just seemed like the same age as one of my kids. By the way, explaining those things to Chinese people, not only requires a lot of rapid fire dictionary look up but a lot of laughter and blushing on my part as well. I did get the chance to use Eli as a reference for the first time over here and they loved it. Thought it was great, especially when I told them that Matt and Eli get along better as best friends than they ever did as boyfriend and girlfriend. Go figure.

All day yesterday I received text messages from the "quiet" freshman named Elvis. Not so quiet anymore! I have plans to "practice English" with him in the near future. I just hope that's what it is and not a cover for something else. Ah well! Maybe I'll get abducted next weekend. Who knows! Have a good one people.

When I come around..

is one of the corniest titles ever stolen from a cheesy song...

I have this little black notebook which I tend to carry with me on travels to school or to places that don't have the word "school" in them. It's starting to accumulate random notes and drawings and starting to look like any one of the several drawing notebooks that I left in America.

Here are some notes from the past few weeks (drawings not included)

- Ian is totally my George from Grey's Anatomy, if this turns out to be true than who is my McDreamy?

- I was thinking about Denny from work today, that's sort of random, probably have been watching too much of Grey's season two...

- Benny texted me out of the blue to see if I was feeling better, with the way things have been sort of awkward between he and I, it was a nice gesture.

- To dance you need either rhythm or confidence, if you lack both please stay off the dance floor!

- This tea was most definitely made from dandelions...

- (because I was sick) I have a new Chinese haircut and a boy's voice....great, even more reason for them to call me "he."

- (still sick) For this cold I've had my fingers pricked, have been given strange flower tea, weird Chinese medicine and candy. I just want my voice back.

- I miss my voice in the worst way. A voice is one of those things that you don't miss until it's gone. I miss mine. It's useful. I can speak foreign languages with it. I can sing with it. I can mimic. Now it's missing and it blows.

- Why did Gavin bail on me and this driver again? So stupid. What if I had wanted to go somewhere too? Then I would have felt so bad for this guy because it's his job to wait for us for 2-3 hours until we get out of class. He could be doing other things. Not thoughtful.

- Kate Grundman can draw and there is an art store in Yantian. I want to do something this weekend. Fuck it, I want to do something tomorrow!

- Gavin's driver's driving is ridiculous.

- There are different classes and levels of friends amidst the foreign teachers. It's a bit strange sometimes but it will make sense to us. It's become a little cliquey but that's fine with me, it's like high school. I butterfly around now, like I did then. I can talk to anyone. Most of them know who I am and if they don't know my name they've at least talked to me. It's like my profile on here says "I'm impossible to forget but I'm hard to remember."

- One should never ever refer to me as "princess beauty" ever. Even if you're trying to impress me. Don't. Just. No.

- I got an arm workout on a 45 minute bus ride home the other evening. No literally, it was a workout that was ridiculous.

- Unnecessary rascism and the people that point it out

- Why is it that people are always hatin on the people that I like, what's up with that?

- Liz asked the question "why are we not friends?" .....we're not friends?

- I took a two hour nap after Chinese class yesterday. It was DIVINE.

- I'm currently reading the book "Stuff White People Like" and it makes me both frustrated, sad and laugh all at the same time. I'm also starting to realize how different I am from everyone else here. Well, maybe not everyone, but most.

This morning I walked by the boy track team as they were lined up on the field. As I passed right in front of the whole group I turn right at them and cocked my head. They laughed and greeted me with "Hellos" and "Good Mornings" and more laughter. I love making them laugh, if I can do that, my work is complete. These kids don't laugh enough, everyone at this school is strict with them, so if I can make a few jokes or get a few to crack up, I think that's half of my job right there.

Having Adverse Effects

To quickly apologize for my post script in the last blog let me say that it is a rather new feeling for me to have people reading my blog, much less commenting on it. It also means that I have to censor myself a little, which if you know me, you know that that's not something I do very well. I really don't censor too much, just enough so that I don't get people yelling at me and what not. I absolutely adore the flood of watchers and comments and people taking time out of their lives to listen to me bitch. But (as those who try to sound smart say way too often) I digress.

Also to clarify; generally the titles of my blogs, while they usually have to do with the blogs the meanings may or may not be clear to anyone except myself. The last title read "Losing my religion." The meaning can be understood by a piece of the blog itself, where I was "losing faith" in my ability to teach classes at the time due to that one problem class. I am no longer in that frame of mine however. I'm a big fan of titles, whether they make sense or not. You will learn this. lol

I'm also going to take a minute (what? a lot of stuff happened this week) to welcome Evangeline Marie Jarvi into the world. I like the name, although I can hear "EVA MARIE" being shouted across a playground a lot clearer than I can "EVANGELINE MARIE" possibly due to how close the former is to my own two first names, and how frequently I've heard the two used in unison. There is no doubt that this new little addition to the ever growing Jarvi household will be loved and cherished by every and anyone who knows her. And may she grow into a world better than it is now and may she see brighter days because of it. Welcome dear one, I send you kisses from the far east.

Let's recap the week shall we.

Aside from the shake up of schedules the week went rather smoothly right up to the weekend. I didn't really get robbed, enjoyed a nice shopping trip in Dongmen on Thursday with Brendon and reveled in the cool weather we've been having. I had no classes Thursday and Friday due to exams so it was sleep in city for me and I was more than pleased.

Friday we (and when I say "we" I mean Gavin) invited a good number of other foreign teachers to ride back with our troop to the wonder that is Bao'an. Many of them had never been and so they were a little apprehensive, but the promise of drinking and roller skating antics pushed them into over crowed vans and one VERY crowded car and we all made the trek home to our part of town. There were a lot of comments ranging from "wow, there's no tall buildings" to "we're going to get robbed" to "why is that guy staring at me?" They were not aware that in Bao'an we are celebrities. When the hoard of us marched off to the roller skating rink, those not familiar to the city found out exactly how true this statement seemed to be as we were gawked at in the streets and horded around at the park. While I braved my second attempt at roller skating with some other fellows, several members of our part stayed outside to play pool. Losers! Nah. But while they stayed they were literally surrounded by Chinese people. There are photos on facebook to prove this. It was sort of ridonkulous but in a way, fun! It was like playing on one of those professional shows.

I played a few games but unfortunately the drunker I became the worse I got (generally it's the reverse, I blame Chinese beer and also being on the opposite side of the world, it throws mah game!) I also found out that alcohol + roller skates = bad idea! and the second time I ventured out on the rink, newly toasted, I quickly regretted it. There is a phenomenon that occurs on a Chinese roller rink. When you skate by yourself, and especially if you're foreign, and even more especially if you're a girl, Chinese people will come along and take you by the hand and skate with you. This happened to me about 5 minutes after I started skating. A young Chinese guy took me by the hand and started leading me around the floor. A few minutes later two others grabbed my other hand and he told me in Chinese that they were his friends. In about two minutes I looked over my shoulder and noticed that we were leading a train of about 15 other Chinese people around the rink. My guy was pumped, he kept trying to skate faster and faster and get us to make a complete circle where everyone was holding hands. After about 10 minutes of this my legs were starting to give out so I retreated to the out doors and to the games of pool. On my second attempt at skating this same thing would happen again and again, although it wouldn't end in the same way. Generally when we would make that turn (that got sharper with each go) I would fall on my knees or on my ass or even on my face. Seriously people, where in the world I got the idea into my head that it was a good idea to put skates on after a few beers, I'll never know. I have bruises on my bruises....

Saturday I had training center. As much as I bitch about this training center every week, every week it continues to make up for it because I am in love with those kids. I couldn't do it last week because I had a cold. When I walked into one of the classes all of the kids said in Chinese "WE MISSED YOU" and after class they were asking when I would teach them again and were disappointed to hear that it would be in about three weeks (I have each class once ever three weeks) I'm in love with those kids just as much as I love my own kids.

After a much needed nap (I went to bed around 1am and had to wake up at 6:30) I was invited to spend the day with my new friend Ian whom I've recently met at the Chinese/English corner BA and I attend on Wednesdays and Sundays at Shenzhen University. We played pool for about an hour (he won all three games, even though he was hustling me, it's China I tell you!) and then took the bus to a park called Yuan Bo Yuan Park. The English name is long and hilarious but I forgot it at the moment. This park was awesome! Trees and flowers everywhere. It was a festival of greenery. Even the area surrounding the park was full of trees. Made me miss home, and autumn and fall. It's still nice to see so much green in November. There were also stairs. Stairs everywhere. Chinese people have a hard on for stairs I dunno what it is. You climb them all the time. My calves are going to be the size of Schwarzenegger's if I keep this up. We wandered around exploring here and there, eating oranges and bananas that he brought along, me drawing here and there. At one point we stopped at the "Happiness Pagoda" and this little girl had grabbed her mom's camera and was taking photos of us. Some of them were pretty decent so I asked for the mom's email so that she could send them to me. Granted the little girl was about 4.

After coming back home on an exhausting bus ride where I got the workout of my life, Ian said that he wanted to stop off at the bakery first before he took me home. When we got there he told me that it was his birthday! I actually almost hit him. The whole day and he didn't tell me! Brat. I told him if my voice was better I'd sing for him, so I owe him a song. He told me that spending the day with me was present enough. Too sweet! He'd ordered a cake earlier in the day so we sat and ate nearly the whole thing in the bakery. We spent a good two hours in the back of the bakery talking and eating way too much and listening to music. It was good times. He's very sweet but I worry sometimes about his intentions and whether I can live up to the expectations that I'm believing he has for this relationship. I know he likes me, it's sort of obvious，but I'm not so sure I know how to handle that. I tried to explain to him in one of our conversations that I'm not looking for a boyfriend right now. I'm not sure if it translated or not.

On the way home he said that he knew a medicine that would help my cuts from the skating incident the previous night and so we swung by the drug store on the way home. Yeah. It was iodine. And yeah, it hurt like a bitch. The thought was nice though, and it has been helping. But really, fuck the person who discovered iodine.


Well folks, Monday is coming to a close. Classes today were MUCH better than they were last week. The class that I thought hated me actually did rather well and paid attention. I think the key there is that we played games all hour, and I gave candy to the winning teams. P.S. mom, the smartees are a huge hit and they're perfect because I can just give out the pieces not the entire thing and I can use it in a lot of classes. Good job! Thank you! Thank you again everyone for the kind thoughts and reminders that no, they are not going to behave all the time, or like me. But generally they do. When I think that everything is out to get me, China generally surprises the hell out of me and turns it all around. I'm quickly realizing why people fall in love with this country.

Losing My Religion

Today I moved through my own share of emotions. My classes were shook up like a boggle ball because of the mid terms this week. My four classes today were not the four classes I normally have on Mondays and it was definitely a change. I had things all prepared but I realized that it may have been better to attack this as sort of a free week because I only teach three days this week. Unfortunately I was told this about 10 minutes before class started. I came prepared to do a little book work, look at photos and then play a game of some kind. Only two classes made it to the game. It doesn't help that I've recently lost my voice due to the cold that I acquired over the weekend. I sound like a 12 year old boy, albeit a "sexy" 12 year old boy as I've been told by students of both this school and shenzhen university. Fantastic. So I squeaked my way through my first class, who were mostly well behaved and then moved on to my second.

Something was just wrong in that class and I could tell from the get go. I don't know what happened. I get weird vibes in that class. Like they're plotting against me. This was the class that I punished with book work three weeks ago because they just wouldn't shut up. Also we never did get to game because I didn't have the tools I needed for it. Maybe we'll try it next week. I felt bad and I have a feeling they could feel my fear. It weirds me out when they're super quiet, which they were. I just hope I didn't make them think they were being punished. I don't need that. I left the class feeling dejected and as a failure at teaching. I don't need my kids, any of my kids not liking me.

Luckily, I gave myself a pep talk. The right side of my brain told the left side to shut the fuck up. I do this sometimes, it sounds a little crazy but it helps to give me perspective on a lot of things. I came to the conclusion that yes some of my kids aren't going to like me. I'm a teacher. Even I didn't like my best teachers sometimes. I had my fights and disagreements with them. It's a little bit of karma kicking me in the shins. It's just going to have to push me to work hards. NO I shouldn't have to entertain these kids all the time, there are days when we are going to do bookwork and they should just understand that. Two weeks ago we did Halloween, last week they had military training. This week is exams. So sometimes it's work and sometimes it's play. When they work, they work very hard, but when they play they play just as hard. If they hate me, so what. I have 1,200 other kids who make the whole thing worthwhile. I'm allowed to have one class who makes life difficult for me, especially when I hear some of the other experiences from other teachers (I have angels compared to some). So I told myself to shut up and stop looking for acceptance from 14 year olds, it aint gonna happen sometimes. Just gerron wif it. (Monty Python Reference)

Thankfully (at least for my more sensitive side that always needs validation) the last two classes of the day went really well. Class 8 (always a pleasure to have cuz they're my smart babies) did very well and played the prepped game and Class 1 who were noisy for the most part, when we got to the game did beautifully (even though they got a little crazy with the ball throwing).
I walked out of the last class breathing better and feeling for recharged and more positive.

Notes from this past weekend and today:

- Watched Caroline get her hair cut Saturday and then went with BA yestreday to get my hair cut. It seems that because we get bored over here and there's not parents to tell us how to cut our hair or men to judge us we're more prone to messing with our looks. We seem to be using this as an outlet to some of our frustrations with this country. "I can't change what I hate about some things here, but I can fuck with my looks." My hair is a little....shorter than normal and the guy thinned it the heck out. It's never been this thin, it blows in the tiniest amount of wind. I call it the "Chinese look" because they're hair always looks so thin. I'll put pictures up somewhere....eventually. The nice part about getting our hair cut here is it'll grow back by the time we go home.

- Yesterday at SZ University I watched Ian and Brendon "pop and lock" dance and it was one of the best things I've witnessed all week. I'm also going to start referring to them as Luke and Han, cuz our little trio reminds me of that when we travel together

-That SAME kid tried to steal from me again yesterday. I turned around as he was about to reach for the same pocket. Luckily my ipod was tucked into my jeans. I shouted at him and he booked. I saw him again as I was crossing the same bridge and grabbed his shirt, he dashed off. I'm wondering whether this is going to become a problem or some sort of strange game.

- Last night at the university we discussed the friends episode where Pheobe has the cold and the "sexy voice" and I about died laughing. Brendon got an Ocharina from a guy named Jimbo and I found that I cannot speak Chinese with the voice problem I have now. We also discussed "black humor" and porn. Win.

- Got a package from mom it was fantastic. Cookies got destroyed and I missed having more than one pair of jeans. Got bunches of photos and magazine wif Keira Knightly on the cover and lots of other goodies. Yay thanks mum :)

- The boy that sits with me and Katherine at lunch was cute and told us he has a crush on a girl in his class today but it's a secret. It made me realize two things. I forgot I was teaching teenagers and Valentine's Day is gonna be hella fun to teach.

- Brendon (after drinking on Friday): "Hey Shauna, what's the measure word for cleavage?"
Me : "Oodles. Oodles of cleavage."

- Gavin's birthday Friday, accompanied by Jack's toast, his dancing (which I hate that I missed) yummy Japanese fried food, creepy guys with long hair, Gavin molesting Caroline with pics to prove it. D club and retrieving that hat, which...actually never left I guess. Sunglasses at night are douchbaggy. Weird cab rides home.

I'm going to add a quick end note because I'm tired of writing (which is obvious because there are SO many details left out of this) Fall has finally shown up in Shenzhen. It's not that pissy cool weather that only comes on the tail end of a thunderstorm, it was cold this morning. After taking my not-warm-enough-shower I hopped back into my covers to try to warm myself back up because I greeted the day. Because it has gotten so cold, my kids have switched uniforms (at least their fancy ones) to resemble what I wore for Halloween. My girls look how I looked but my boys where long sleeve white collar shirts and navy jackets. These little men are possibly the cutest thing I have seen since coming here. They're adorable because often the jackets come over-sized so tiny hands stick out of ridiculously long sleeves. I can't teach them like this because I just sit there and "squee" for about 10 minutes every class. Really thank God for school uniforms and cute kids.

That's all folks.

oh p.s. mom stop harassing Joel about comments. I feel weird if I knew people were checking my blog on near obsessive levels. I have no problem with the lack of comments. Plus, it's like a watched pot situation, and it reminds me of too many other things that I'm dealing with right now that sort of depress me. So as I say nicely but firmly to my kids who talk too much. "Shh."

And then there were seven.

Let me start off first by a open congratulations to all who voted, to all who stressed over every little tidbit of this election, and to those (like Meghan :-) who attacked the New York Times website a hundred times an hour yesterday. I commend you. I personally cannot bear to stress like that. Yes, I know that this is a huge decision that will affect our country for years to come. Yes, I am aware that this is the first black president, and for that I am infinitely proud of my country. Yes, I will continue to worry about the president until it has been at least a year and there hasn't been an attack on his life. I worry for him. These are dangerous times. We shall see. That is sort of my motto living in China as of late. We shall see. This happened exactly the way it was supposed to happen. So everyone who is pissing and moaning in the south can understand what those of us who have been pissing and moaning for the past 8 years have had to deal with. You had your turn, you fucked things up with the choice you made. Let us have a try with the choice we've made. I'm ready for change and it looks like the man is going to bring it, whether the rest of the country is ready for it or not.

Second thought. This is not meant to sound racist in the slightest. But black people (normally ya know, the bad ones, ya know my boys in Detroit) are always going on and on about The Man. Well.....The Man is black now too. Wonder how that'll affect thinking as well as that phrase.

Last night we were introduced, via James Jones, to the new teacher who will be taking over Randy's school. This is no offense to Randy but it seems that we've lost one southern gentlemen for another. This one's name is Ryan and he comes from Kentucky. Seems nice, good teeth (although apparently they're fake O.o) He's a returner so it's nice to have someone in the group who's done this whole bit before. His Chinese is also about....ohhhh my level, which weirds me out. At least he likes sports. Gavin will be ecstatic. He's got a good, quick sense of humor. I like that, he'll at least keep me entertained in the dregs.

Tuesday I went out with Ian for supper and then we went to Xin'an park for some roller skating. I feel like Xin'an park is sort of like "Central Park" here, at least for me. It's where I went with Benny on our first "date", it's where I ended up with Katherine and we danced away our troubles about her friend in the hospital, and it's where I re-learned how to roller skate in the little rink in the middle of the park on Tuesday.

I started off shakily, holding his hand nearly the whole time, afraid of falling on my face. I really was like Bambi for the first half hour, and I'm sure I was entertaining to watch. Although as much as I skidded this way and that I did not fall, and even better, I did not take him down with me. We zipped around for a while and had snippets of conversation, most of which I couldn't follow either because I couldn't hear (they were blaring techno music the whole time) or because I was concentrating on not wiping out.

At one point we made it to the balance bar on one side of the rink to rest and have a drink and attempt to learn how to skate backwards from this guy who was really good. I don't know how it happened but I know somehow my feet went forward and my skates went out from under me and I fell right on my ass. Not only that but one of my skates came down hard on my left leg. Now I have a limp on my left side and a few bruises all over. I showed Ian on Wednesday and he fretted all over them, saying that it was his fault. Unless he somehow pushed me, which he did not, it was in no way his fault - but he continues to worry.

Finally let me tell you about the time I nearly got robbed......by a nine-year old.

They tell you to watch out for your stuff because there are people looking to rob you from every angle. They even tell you to look out for the kids because sometimes they'll form gangs and attack you. But see I've been walking over the same damn bridge for nearly two months now and I don't know if it's because I'm foreign, or because I'm scary or because I'm generally double-timing it because I'm late I've normally been left alone by whatever thieves hunt on that bridge.

Yesterday I guess something seemed different about me. I had my school books and was listening to my ipod and just casually walking along the bridge to head back home before we were supposed to have dinner with J.J. and Ryan. Now when I listen to my ipod I keep the "pod" part in a pocket my purse, zipped up, and the headphones strung up to my ears. I had a skirt on, otherwise it would have been in my pockets.

So I'm walking along and I pass these two kids. I notice them off the bat because they have really interesting faces, like grown-up faces. Not the fresh-faced looks of the kids that go to my school. I notice them for another reason, they're not wearing uniforms. Now, in America this might not seem strange, but in China these kids live in their uniforms. They wear them every day all day, even on weekends. Very rarely do I see them in regular clothes and when I do I can hardly recognize them. So already these two kids intrigue me but at the time I think nothing of it, pass them and continue walking. After a few moments I notice that the bridge has become crowded and so things are slowing down. Frustrated I turn my head and notice that the boys are walking somewhat behind me now. My first reaction is to put my hand on the strap of my purse, which is what I do when I'm nervous anywhere in China. Protect your stuff, that's the key. They told us that generally Chinese people are out to steal from you, not harm you. But then I feel guilty about not trusting these kids. So in thought of good faith I let my purse go and just hike up my pace along the bridge, dodging and weaving through the crowd. I check behind me and the little one is still right behind me, I walk faster.

It all happened in a matter of moments. I feel a sensation and turn around. This boy has my ipod in. his. hands. And now it's unplugged from my headphones. The music stopped. I stare at him and say in plain English "Give it to me!" and not waiting for a response, snatch it out of his shaking hands. His face gave me the impression that he was about to piss himself. I watched him for a moment, shoved it back in my purse, turned and made my way down the steps.
Shaking a little myself due to the miniature adrenaline rush of realizing that I just prevented myself from being mugged, albeit from someone who came up to my waist. The most unnerving part was that in the pocket where my ipod was also lay, my phone, my keys, and two 100kuai dollar bills - all of which could have been snatched but he stupidly went for the thing that was attached to me at the time. As soon as he unplugged that thing whether I had felt it or not I would have noticed the lack of music and turned around. Of course he obviously wasn't that bright.

The whole situation, although not threatening still rattles me a little. And yesss I am going to be paying more attention when I walk - which I usually do but for someone reason yesterday I wasn't in the "safety" frame of mine (I blame the sickness). I will move things to another pocket deeper in my purse and keep it in front of me.

Everyone keeps saying I should have beat him upside the head, but I don't think so. Although when I think back it makes me angry enough to want to strike something or someone, at the time I realize that there are people here that are poor enough to attempt to do things like that. So I pity them. If he hadn't been an idiot and tried to steal from me, maybe I would have given the little brats some money to go get something to eat. We'll never know. But if I do see him again I'm gonna box him on the ears, you bet your ass.

Alright that's enough from me. I'm off to blow my nose all over China.

It's November....where is my God damned cold weather?

Seriously.

I'm currently in a little internet cafe surfing the interwebs because I have no life. NO this is not true, I have reasons for being on here. Blog is one of them....I think.

This past week I feel like I've done everything and anything there is to do in China. Between teaching Halloween in classes this week (which by the way went hilariously) and making new friends at Shenzhen university to getting asked to pose as "fake italians" for some chinese company (which I declined). Thursday we went to Happy Valley with some girls from the university and enjoyed the rollar coasters and Halloween festivities (it wasn't Cedar Point but it was no less awesome) Friday of course was Halloween and we celebrated it the only way we knew how...by wearing awesome costumes and getting drunk. There was also karaoke earlier in the afternoon with our Chinese classes, which we rocked.

I've been checking out the photos from Halloween...ho boy. We were classic that night. Some highlights of the night for those of you who missed it (and by that I mean everyone in America)

• All you can eat Pizza and Beer for 100 kuai (about $15) at NYPD pizza, complete with entertainment - that we didn't pay for
• Fred Brewer showing up in that little purple number. Man did he make a fine lookin' woman!
• James Jones coming as himself
• Andy Quitmeyer's rendition of MMMmmbop during karaoke
• Daniel Higgs and his full out werewolf costume - and how the chinese kids were basically unfazed by it
• All the kids dressed as.....chinese kids (self included)
• The frightening overgrown babies....Evan close your legs please!
• BAI HUA XIAO XUE
• Rachel and her zombie costume and her attacking everyone with fake blood
• The Foreigner "Zoo"
• John McCain and Sarah Palin showed up at one point...
• The tooth and the door (compliments of Caroline and Amy)
• Brendon Albertson's beat boxing and Danny Stokely's freestyle rapping made the night!
• Gavica!!!!

Most of these are unfortunately inside jokes of the group. If you want me to explain any of them I'll be happy to. Otherwise try to check out what photos there are on facebook, I'll be getting mine up on myspace soon enough. Til then...

WAN SHENG JIE KUAI LE. (Happy Halloween in chinese)