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.